Leon? A Word, Please?
by Tani2
Summary: Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. L/C & C/J. Complete! For real this time!
1. Prologue: Moving In

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5 with flashbacks in italics

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Author's Notes: **Hey, folks. So, I've been reading RE fanfic for a couple years now (esp. the L/C and C/J fics), but I have yet to contribute. I've written a decent amount of fanfic and original stuff over the years, but this is my first RE fic. I was hoping for my first RE fanfic to write some sweeping epic adventure chock full of exciting action sequences and suspenseful intrigue, but being who she is, smut and angst came to my muse's mind first. Oh, well. Maybe I'll get to that epic later. In the interim, I hope you enjoy a story filled with romance with a healthy side order of humor, and a heaping topping of sex. I welcome criticism, good or bad. I am always looking to grow as a writer. If you've read my long ass profile, you've seen that I can get wordy, but I think it's in a good way. I'd also have to describe myself as having a fairly dirty mind . . . and mouth. It comes through in my writing. If I say that my story is rated M, it is _not _for the faint of heart.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

* * *

**Prologue: Moving In**

_**Arlington, Virginia: a moving truck in front of a large suburban house**_

"Can you get the other end of this couch, Leon?"

"Sure thing, Chris." Leon grabbed one end while Chris grabbed the other. Both men lifted and carried it out the back of the truck.

"You boys be careful with that. It was my mother's," Jill warned from the sidewalk.

"Why would you trust something so precious to you in the hands of 'Dumb and Dumber' over there?" Claire asked Jill as she jumped down from the cab of the truck, where she'd just taken a break from lugging around Jill's furniture.

"Not like I have a choice," Jill muttered. "_Somebody's _gotta be the pack mules." She and Claire snickered as they walked past the two men, each woman carrying a stack of small boxes in her arms.

Leon and Chris both rolled their eyes as they lifted the heavy couch up the front steps of Chris and Jill's new home.

After Jill was rescued from under Wesker's control in Africa, she returned to Washington, D.C. to find her apartment rented out by new tenants for the past eighteen months and her belongings in storage, thanks to Chris being unable to let her memory die with her when she was presumed to be dead. With nowhere else to go, she left her stuff in storage and moved in with her long time partner.

She had lived with Chris for the past six months, enjoying their time together, reconnecting with him, admitting her love for him, and finally, accepting his marriage proposal two weeks before. Not wanting to waste a single moment after so much time lost, the couple immediately sold Christopher's condo. They used that money, along with the compensation the BSAA gave to Jill for her two lost years and physical traumas acquired in active duty, to buy the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom house they were now moving into.

Leon and Claire were the only ones of their friends whose schedules allowed them to come help the soon-to-be married couple move that week, so the four of them planned it out that they would all take the week off to move everything and fix up the house. After the house was furnished and fixed up on the weekend, Chris and Jill would marry in an intimate ceremony in their massive new backyard, with all the Umbrella survivors in attendance. The yard even had a lovely gazebo that could serve as the place for the altar to be set up. That is, once they cleaned off all the bird poop and painted it.

Claire exited the house as the men set Jill's couch in what would be her sitting room.

"This is such a nice neighborhood," Claire commented as she looked out the front door at the beautiful tree-lined avenue.

"Yeah, I like it, too," Leon said. "The picket fenced-in house situated in a suburb of Arlington, Virginia is very _Scarecrow & Mrs. King_." He then smiled innocently at Chris and asked, "So, which one are you, Bro? Scarecrow or Mrs. King?"

Claire shook her head in amusement as Chris threw one of Jill's couch pillows at Leon's smiling face. "Don't listen to him, Chris. I love the white picket fence. It reminds me of our home back in Connecticut. Remember, Chris? Where we lived before Mom and Dad died?"

"Yeah. I remember. And I'm glad you like the house. That means you won't mind coming into town to baby-sit after Jill squeezes me out a few Mini-Me's."

Jill yelled down the stairs, "Eat shit and die, Redfield! I'll get knocked up when I feel like it . . . and I'm having a girl when I do!"

Leon smirked. "Aww. True love. Did she get that from a Hallmark card, Chris?"

The older man laughed, "Kiss my ass, Kennedy."

Leon shook his head slowly. "Not even with Oliveira's lips, Gringo."

Claire chuckled. "Correction: this _was _such a nice neighborhood. Then _you _bunch of hoodlums moved in and all the property values declined."

Jill came downstairs to go out to the moving truck. "Whatever, Claire," she commented as she passed the redhead. "I'm sure your Harley just screams 'domestic goddess' back in the 'burbs of Maryland where _you _live."

"No, Jill. My Harley screams 'Claire is awesome'. But that's neither here nor there."

They all laughed and went back outside. Leon let Claire pass by him, and then tripped her 'accidentally' with one of his sized thirteen Nikes. He chuckled when she slugged him in the arm.

"Watch your clodhoppers, Jerk!"

Chris smirked and said, "A lady if ever _I've _seen one."

Claire muttered on her way out the door about how the Y chromosome was a genetic mutation that turned perfectly good females into big, hairy idiots with abnormal plumbing between their legs.

Leon yelled out the door, "Don't act like you don't _love _the plumbing between my legs!"

Chris's smile faltered a bit, but it soon recovered. After all, a comment like that wasn't all that far off from what Leon and Claire _always _said to each other. In fact, it was pretty much their norm to joke around using sexual innuendo, mostly to make him uncomfortable, if Claire was to be believed. The problem was, for the last several months, Chris was getting the distinct suspicion that it might not be just a joke. He stared after Kennedy and Claire as Leon threw her over his shoulder and swung her around until she threatened to barf down his back.

Chris chuckled and shook his head. Maybe he was being paranoid. The sexual comments were probably just another part of their over thirty adolescent bonding rituals. In any case, even if there _was _more to it than that, now was not the time to deal with it.

There was just too much left for all of them to do.

* * *

"Eyes off the prize, Blondie," Claire said to Leon with a smirk.

"Huh?"

"My eyes are up here, Agent Kennedy. Stop staring at my tits."

He smiled. "Stop having your big tits on display in tight, low-cut, mid-riff T-shirts, and then maybe I'll stop staring at them."

She chuckled and slapped him on the ass. "I mean it. I'm only telling you this for your own good. Perving on me around my brother is not good for your well-being."

Leon chuckled and kissed her lips softly. He wasn't afraid of Chris . . . or his gigantic biceps. He'd certainly been hit by worse. He suppressed a shiver as El Gigante came suddenly to mind. Claire smiled and returned the kiss before going back to puttering around the room.

He leaned against the wall drinking a bottled water while he watched her move about the kitchen. He couldn't help but smile. If he was going to be honest with himself, he _was _afraid, but not of his longtime pal Chris Redfield. He was more afraid of the smaller, prettier, bustier Redfield.

Claire stood in the middle of the kitchen in deep thought, her musings residing in a head that just barely cleared five-foot-four. She was wearing a cut-off black graphic T-shirt that said 'Claire will rock you' on the back, a pair of khaki shorts that could easily be described as 'daisy-dukes' by length alone even without being made of denim, tiny black and beige size six Sketchers, and her customary ponytail.

Bottom line: she looked hot.

This was the first time they'd seen each other in almost six months, although they did speak on the phone quite frequently since they'd met up again in Harvardville. Or rather since two weeks later when they had . . . 'reconciled'. Prior to that meeting, they hadn't spoken to each other in years. Now barely a week could go by before they were having a late night conversation in hushed tones. His schedule had kept him from visiting her more than a couple times, but nothing could keep him from calling her. There had even been times that he'd called her during an outbreak, just to hear her voice in case he didn't make it.

Despite how much better their partnership (as Chris always called it) was after their reunion that fateful night, he still wasn't sure where they stood _now_ or how much she had told Chris or Jill about their past. He didn't know whether he should be upfront about things or hide them. Claire was flirtatious with him in front of them, but she'd always been that. He didn't know if she was flirting because it was a habit or because it meant something more.

The problem was, whatever his mind felt he should or shouldn't do, his body was pretty much doing the decision-making for him. All day, Leon couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of Claire. Every time he saw her that day, she seemed to get more and more beautiful. And then, when she'd just bent over in front of him to pick something up that she'd dropped on the kitchen floor, another part of his body made _its_ pleasure known at seeing Claire again. It had been far too long of a Claire dry-spell he'd been on. Lucky for him, she was the only one around at the moment to see his reaction to the end of the drought.

She just giggled, patted his then painful erection and whispered in his ear that he might want to go to the bathroom and take care of that before Chris saw it.

"Yeah," Leon agreed hoarsely. "Whether he thought it was because of you, Jill, or him, that would not bode well for me."

Claire started to giggle in a sultry way that made his 'problem' that much more obvious.

"You can use the master bathroom. Oh, and don't worry. I'll cover for you."

Leon looked around for any sign of Chris or Jill. When he saw none, he leaned down and kissed Claire with a bit more affection . . . and tongue. He kissed his way across her cheek, and finally caressed Claire's earlobe with his lips. He smiled when she shivered and sighed for him.

"Thanks," he whispered against her ear.

She smirked and pushed him backwards gently, towards the stairs. "Least I can do for you after you've paid me such a . . ." She paused, looked down at his groin, and then back into his eyes. ". . . _huge _compliment." She winked at him and went out the back door to where Chris and Jill were setting up their patio furniture. Leon watched her hips sway in those tiny khaki shorts before he headed up the back staircase that connected the kitchen to the upper level of the house.

"Hey, Claire," Jill said with a smile as she noticed the appearance of her future sister-in-law. "Where's Leon?"

The last thing Leon heard before he closed the bathroom door behind him was Claire's voice saying, "He said he had to take a dump."

'Oh, great job covering for me, Claire!' Leon thought with annoyance. 'Damn her twisted sense of humor!'

Now, he had to be quick about things or come up with a better explanation for his prolonged disappearance.

"Days like this, I wish I were a 'minute man'," he growled as he turned on the cold water tap and opened his fly.

* * *

After a lot of sweat and limited breaks, they were able to get the entire truckload of Jill's possessions, as well as some of Chris's 'most important things' (including a dark brown leather sofa and a sixty-inch plasma screen television), inside the house and into their proper places. Throughout that time, Leon and Claire's flirtation had escalated, to the point that even the ever easy-going Agent Valentine told them to knock it off before she throttled them for making her nauseous.

Chris's reaction to their constant sexual banter was quiet reflection. Having seen more than enough evidence to support his suspicions about their 'partnership', he decided to take action once the time was right.

Everyone had decided that they'd done enough moving for one day, and the girls had unpacked the kitchen earlier in the day to make a home-cooked dinner possible that night. Claire was a much better cook than Jill, who'd been raised mostly by her cat burglar father on microwavable frozen dinners. So, Claire offered to teach her brother's fiancée how to cook, in particular how to cook meals that Chris loved from their childhood, recipes which Claire had learned from their mother. Jill was thrilled with the idea, and hugged Claire until the redhead could barely breathe.

"Yeah, yeah. Just name your firstborn son after me and we'll call it square," Claire joked.

Jill was all smiles as the two women got into Leon's expensive new luxury vehicle to go to the local Whole Foods supermarket. They took his car over Claire's just to annoy him, especially since his choice of vehicle seemed to scream 'secret agent'.

Leon waved after them with a warm smile as they pulled off down the street. "Hurt my Aston Martin, and I'll shoot you both!" he yelled after them cheerily. Claire had joked to Leon when she first saw his car that morning that he was to James Bond what a White Castle hamburger was to filet mignon. Leon had retaliated by calling her 'Pussy Galore' for the next two hours.

"Hey, Leon," Chris called from the front doorway. "Can I have a word with you, please?"

Leon turned to face his friend and shrugged. "So long as you're buying the beers."

Chris smiled. "Deal. Go have a seat out back. There's still a lot of sun, and a nice breeze to boot. I'll be out in a moment." Leon nodded, assuming that Chris was having cold feet about the wedding and just wanted to be encouraged to go through with it.

Leon went around the side of the house to sit on the patio furniture in the back, picking one end of a cushioned designer wicker outdoor sofa. Chris, on the other hand, went through the inside of the house to the kitchen. He got a cooler, filled it with the contents of a bag of ice from his new deep freezer, and then put the contents of a case of beer from out of the refrigerator into the cooler. He carried the cooler outside and sat it on the ground in front of the couch, a little to Leon's right. Chris then planted himself on the opposite end of the couch.

"So, Leon. How've you been doing? It feels like forever since I last saw you."

Leon smiled. "Depends on the day. Some days are too boring for words, and others, too exciting. I'm either wasting away as Ashley's personal bodyguard, almost being blown away by bioterrorists, or almost being eaten alive by bio-organic weapons."

Chris laughed and said, "I feel your pain."

Leon shrugged. "Yeah, well. I'm still alive, at the very least. Especially, since all three scenarios are hazardous to my health. The first one, in particular. In fact, I think I might be developing an allergy to college aged girls." Chris laughed even harder. Leon opened a beer and handed it to Chris before opening one of his own. "It's nice to hear you laugh again, Chris. While Jill was presumed K.I.A., you were like a shell of your former self, filling your life with going to the gym, working insane hours, and drinking away your pain. It's good to have the old Chris back."

Chris looked down at his huge arms (proof of how obsessive he had gotten about keeping fit while Jill was gone), and then at his beer (another past obsession). "Hey, Bro? Can you keep me down to a six-pack maximum? I promised Jill."

Leon nodded. "No worries."

Chris smiled in gratitude. He then studied Leon for a moment before saying, "You know, I'm not the only one who's been a shell of his former self."

Leon sighed and said, "I know. What we've been through has affected us all in different ways. I guess it's kind of hardened me, emotionally.

Chris agreed. "It's true that it has hardened you to the rest of the world, but not to your friends and fellow survivors." Chris then swigged his beer and muttered, ". . . except maybe Claire."

Leon looked surprised. "What do you mean?"

Chris sighed. "I mean, I want to talk to you, Leon . . . about this . . . partnership you have with my baby sister."

Leon's eyes widened. Clearly, he had misconstrued Christopher's purpose for asking him to talk. And Claire wasn't even there to act as a buffer. 'This could get ugly,' he thought in dismay.

Chris took another draw off his beer and was quiet for a moment. Finally, he continued: "See, I've had a feeling for a while now it goes deeper than just friendship, but that something is blocking it from becoming much more than just 'friends with benefits'. And I think that blockade is most likely coming from you, Leon . . . not from Claire."

Leon's face was stoic when he replied. "Chris . . . I don't know if I'm comfortable with having this conversation with you, especially behind Claire's back like this. I mean, she's your sister and she's an adult. If you have a question about what she is or isn't doing in her personal life, shouldn't you be asking _her?_"

Chris stared off into the distance. "I'm asking _you_. It's not the fact that I think you two have been sleeping together that's the issue. Like you said, she's an adult. It's the fact that when my sister came back from Harvardville and cried on my shoulder, it wasn't because of her feelings of guilt over TerraSave's blunder. It was because of how cold and distant she said _you _had acted towards her. That was the moment I knew that one day you and I would be having this discussion." Chris sighed and looked at his friend. "Honestly, I should have spoken to you about this two years ago after we did that mission together, but I was so distraught over Jill."

"I know you were," Leon replied comfortingly. He sat back and stared off into the yard. He was just shocked. "I never knew Claire felt that way. And I certainly didn't mean to come off as cold or distant with her. I'm not even sure I know what she meant by that."

Chris explained. "Leon, today you were acting the way you always do with other Raccoon survivors: laughing, joking, insulting." Both men smiled. "But in Harvardville, you never smiled at Claire, never broke the stoic agent persona, not even to hold her when she cried. Whether you two were together or not, she was hurting and she was, at least, your friend. You're _her _best friend, although I know Ark holds that title for you. You should have been more supportive of her when she found out about the mistake her organization had made."

Leon frowned. "Now, wait a minute! I _did _comfort her in that tent when she found out about TerraSave keeping the vaccine from reaching Harvardville in time! And for the record, Claire means a helluva lot more to me than Ark! She's my best female friend, for sure!"

Chris put his hands up as a sign for Leon to calm down. "I know, and Claire was grateful for your comfort, as was I, because I know how Claire can get when she decides to spiral down into a pit of self-blame over mistakes that are out of her control." Both men thought of Steve Burnside, but neither spoke their thoughts aloud.

Leon broke the silence. "Then why did she complain to you about me being cold and distant if she was so grateful for my words?"

Chris shook his head and drank some more beer. "Leon, where were you standing in that tent when you comforted her?"

Leon thought about it for a while and then said, "I was standing by the tent flap."

Chris then asked, "And where was Claire?"

Leon said, "Sitting on a folding chair about fifteen feet . . . away."

Before Leon could say anything more, Chris said, "No one is denying that you comforted Claire. It's just that you comforted her from a distance, like she was an outbreak survivor that you stumbled upon. Like you _should _have treated Angela, not Claire."

"That isn't fair. I was trying to give her some space. The last time we parted ways hadn't been all that pretty. Yes, I know, I usually hold her when she's upset about something, and being in that situation would not have changed things under regular circumstances. It's just that I wasn't sure if she'd _want _me any closer because of our last encounter. After she looked up and smiled at me, I was about to go hug Claire when there was an explosion outside that ruined the moment." In fact, his intention had been to take the risk that Claire wouldn't slug him if he kissed her, but he wasn't telling that to Chris. "As for my . . . aloofness with everyone that day, I had been in 'agent mode' before I even got there . . . because I had to be. When it was just me and Claire in Raccoon City, or me and you two years ago, I could afford to be myself, but I couldn't very well turn 'Agent Kennedy' on and off in Harvardville with so many others counting on me. Not just so Claire could feel more comfortable that 'Leon' was still in there. With lives at stake, I had to keep my game face on."

He had been so happy to see Claire again. He had wanted her to know that he was sorry for his part in that argument five years earlier. They hadn't spoken since then before Harvardville. Harvardville had been their second chance. He wished Chris would understand that. He _assumed _Claire did.

Leon thought back to that day. He had already put himself in the proper tactical mindset for the mission before he'd even arrived on the scene, before he ever heard her voice on that 9-1-1 call. At that moment, he'd been thinking himself crazy for imagining her voice where it couldn't possibly be present. At that moment, he had felt that he had just proven his convictions about not showing too much emotion on a mission to be correct. At that moment, he couldn't even fathom why after over five years apart, he was suddenly hallucinating the dulcet Northeastern tones of one Claire Elizabeth Redfield. He wasn't even in contact with the B.O.W.'s yet, and he was already distracted by his feelings for Claire . . . and she wasn't even there.

Or so he'd thought until that moment passed.

But at the time, he didn't know her life was at stake, and so he thought only of how he had joked around a lot during the mission to Spain, partly to keep Ashley calm, but also because that's just who Leon was. He was a laid back guy and a bit of a jokester. Exhibit A: his best friend was Ark Thompson.

"You know, Chris, after Spain and finding Ada again, I had felt that being myself on a mission was tantamount to letting my feelings get in the way of my judgment. I felt it was the reason that Ada was able to play me and escape with the Plaga sample. And then six months ago, I found out that you were nearly killed by the Majini produced from a descendent of the Plaga Ada stole. My failure, Chris . . . that was the reason you went through everything you did in Africa, and all those people died. So, since then, when on a mission, I'm all business, no matter who I'm with, unless it's just Umbrella survivors. Then I'm my usual fun-loving self."

"Business up front and a party behind the scenes. My friend, you just described your mission tactical strategy as a mullet."

Leon chuckled. "I'm serious, Chris."

"Yeah, I know. Continue."

Leon took a breath then a swig of beer, "I never expected to find Claire in Harvardville, so I wasn't even close to mentally prepared to deal with her presence. I suppose that I could have changed my behavior for her sake, but I figured that if I got caught up in my emotions over her being there like I did over Ada being in Spain, I or someone else could have ended up dead."

Chris asked, "Like Angela Miller?"

Leon sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He thought about how this was the second time Chris mentioned the former SRT member. Clearly, Claire had had a lot to say about the other woman, or more importantly, Claire's perception of Leon's so-called feelings for Angela.

He answered his friend honestly, but he couldn't keep the annoyance out of his tone.

"Chris, I will tell you what I told Claire. Nothing ever happened between me and Angela. Clearly, she hasn't told that to you when she was telling you everything else I did that was so fucking terrible at her expense!"

Chris frowned. "Now, hold on. Don't go getting all indignant about what Claire told me. She wasn't expecting to see you, either. And she certainly wasn't expecting to see you hanging all over that Angela chick."

Leon got up, shouting and gesticulating angrily, "I was _not _hanging all over Angela! I was trying to keep her from snapping! That poor girl found out that her own brother was responsible for killing all those people, including her partner! And then Curtis turned into a monster! Right in front of her! At least Sherry wasn't present when William Burkin turned! Angela watched the whole thing! She was shell-shocked! I had to look out for her! Even though she was a cop, special ops no less, I had to trust in Claire to be my backup in the airport because Angela was practically useless! Claire should have understood that! You don't see me accusing her of anything because she was looking after Rani!"

Chris kept his voice calm as he replied to Leon. "So . . . you're saying Angela was no different to you than Rani was to Claire?"

"Yes!"

"So, Rani asked Claire out, too?"

Leon scraped his fingers through his hair. "No. Okay, fine. I'm not blind. I know Angela was into me, but I think it was all just from the stress of the situation. I was kind to her and . . . and I saved her life . . . more than once. I wasn't _trying _to get her attention, but I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I didn't realize that I _had _her attention, regardless."

"Very well. And are you also going to admit to the fact that you were also coming on to Angela?"

Leon frowned. "If Claire said that, she's a liar!"

"She did, and she is not. She watched you two from the control booth."

"What control booth?"

"Oh, you think that the floor over the burning lower levels beneath you two closed all on its own? Claire did that. She was giving you and Angela backup the entire time you fought Curtis in his G-tyrant form. She saw you save Angela. She saw you holding that woman's hand. You didn't hold Claire's hand when you found her injured. In fact, she said you seemed disinterested, and sent her off to fend for herself. Well, she decided that even though you didn't seem to care what happened to her, she still cared what happened to you. She saw you risking your life to save Angela, then hold her hand, and exchange a little smile with her before letting go. And then she had to watch you go back to stoic agent when you saw her again."

"Claire didn't leave the building?" Leon looked desperate.

"No. She would _never _leave you to fight on your own. You should know her better than that."

Leon plopped back on the couch and stared off into the yard. "She never said a word."

"Of course not. She did it because she has feelings for you. Why would she admit that when you were parading your latest female conquest around in front of her?"

Leon frowned again. "I never intended for her to feel that way. Chris, she was my first priority for even going to Downing's office. When I heard that bomb go off and her cell phone went dead, my heart stopped. My first thought was that I'd failed to protect her . . . that I'd lost her. And then when I found her, I tried to carry her to the elevator, to the surface. She wouldn't let me do anything but help her as a crutch and show her the way out. I tried to send her out of the building so she'd be safe. And she's the one who told me to go on and find Curtis because he'd been coming out of the area where the G virus samples were kept right before the bomb went off."

Chris smiled uncomfortably. Claire had painted her best friend in too harsh a light in this part of the story. But he knew why. "I guess she was already mad at you if she didn't accept your help."

"I guess so." Leon sighed and tilted his head back, resting it on top of the back of the couch. "Chris, if I seemed stoic to her, it's probably because I was trying not to show her how terrified I was to find her injured. Or how elated I was just to find her alive at all." He turned to face his friend. "I'm sorry I made Claire feel like I didn't care. That's the last thing I would _ever _do when it comes to your sister. It's always been an honor to me knowing that you trust me with her safety and her feelings. I would never betray that intentionally. But if she had a problem with how she felt that I treated her, she should have told me. I _thought _that Claire and I were the only level heads in that whole situation! I thought she understood why I was kind to Angela . . . because Angela was falling apart. That's all. I didn't feel like I needed to baby Claire because she's supposed to be such a badass, but if she'd like me to treat her the way I treated Angela from now on, then fine. I just didn't think that the woman I tossed my gun to who then killed six zombies in under ten seconds while holding a small child would need to be babied."

Chris smirked, simultaneously impressed with the description of his sister's skills and amused by the childish manner in which the description was delivered. "Whatever you say, Leon. That still doesn't explain why you led Claire to think there was something going on between you and Angela if there really wasn't." Leon started to say that he didn't, but he was interrupted by something so disturbing, it stopped him in mid-sentence.

Chris held his fists up in front of his chest, and bounced them up and down, mimicking bouncing breasts, while speaking in a high falsetto voice: "Oh, Leon. Maybe we could go diving together again sometime." Then he put one hand over the top of his head with the fingers hanging over his left eye like Leon's fringe and said in a deep voice, "Love to."

Even Leon had to laugh. "Fuck you, Redfield," he chuckled. "The chicks dig my hair."

Chris nodded. "Indeed they do. That's why Claire is so insecure with you when other attractive girls are around. You're just cute as a button, Leon." Chris went to pinch his friend's scarred cheek, but Leon pulled out a Killer 7 and held it in front of Chris's face. "Jesus, Rookie! I was just kidding! And where the hell did you pull that from, your ass?"

Leon smirked and put the gun back in the rear of his jeans before signaling for Chris to continue talking.

"Anyway," Chris continued. "Claire feels plain and ugly around you because you get so much attention from the opposite sex, and because of the attention you give them back. She told me once that she feels like the groupie that you let carry your guitar case to the tour bus, maybe bang her from time to time, but she'd never be your Sharon Osbourne or Linda McCartney."

Leon's smile faded. He sighed and took a swig of beer. "That's ridiculous. Claire is stunning. She's just blissfully unaware of how much attention she gets from men. But I'm _very _aware."

Chris smirked. "Yeah, tell me about it. I got in more fights over Claire and her damn 'hello I'm twelve but I'm stacked' body than I'd ever care to mention."

Leon smiled. "Bottom line, Chris. I've always felt that _I'm _the one who's not worthy of _Claire_."

"Then why'd you hurt her like that? Angela asking you that diving question in front of Claire was what Jill and Claire say was her trying to stake her claim on you in front of Claire. It was a challenge. You must know that she was angry with Claire for TerraSave's role in Greg's death."

Leon sighed. "I got that sense, yes."

"Well, you saying yes to her proposition in front of Claire made my sister feel like shit. She probably felt like you blamed her a little, too."

Leon frowned. "Did Claire say that?"

"No. I just think that's how she must have felt."

"What are you, Dr. Phil now?"

Chris smirked. "Don't change the subject."

Leon sighed and rolled his eyes. He was going to have to come clean. "I was mad at her, okay?"

Chris stared at him in surprise. "At Claire? For what?"

"Because, as I said, the last time we'd seen each other, it wasn't pretty. She wasn't the only one who'd been hurt by our dealings in the past. When we'd last parted ways, she'd said some things that really hurt me. I thought she never wanted to see me again. I had hoped that over the course of the day in Harvardville that we were making headway. And then _she _was cold and distant to _me _after we arrested Browning. I had no idea why. But I bet she didn't tell you _that_ when she was laying all _my _mistakes out on the table."

Chris shook his head. "Honestly, she didn't."

Leon sighed. "Well, I guess now I know it was painful for both of us, so I can't say I blame her. But did she at least tell you that I tried to get her to come fly back to HQ with me in my Huey, but she refused?" Again, Chris shook his head. Leon smirked and chuckled. "You know Claire isn't shy when she's got a bug up her ass. She was all over me about that diving comment the second we were out of Angela's earshot. I told her it was nothing and asked her where she was going and did she need a ride. I smiled at her, Chris. I know I did. I was out of agent mode, and I smiled at her when I asked her to come with me. I was already regretting what I'd said to Angela. It was petty and childish. Neither woman deserved me playing games with their feelings, especially not over my stupid hurt pride. The offer of a ride was a genuine peace offering. I'm sure she knew that. But she smiled at me then said 'no'. It was the best I was going to get from her. I told her I hoped to meet up again under more normal circumstances, and she agreed. I didn't know if she really meant it or not, but at least it was a start. We were talking . . . talking like people who used to be co-workers instead of as close as we'd been, but it was at least something. I ran to my helicopter, and she went in the limo with Rani and her aunt Radhika."

Chris nodded in understanding. He got what Leon was saying. Claire could hold a grudge like nobody's business. He swigged his beer and tossed the empty can across the patio into the recycle bin by the house.

Chris and Leon were silent for a while. Leon finished his beer and also tossed it into the bin from his seat. "Chris, surely you know that whatever drama Claire and I were dealing with at that time, is not the case anymore."

Chris nodded. "Sure. You've been disgusting with each other today."

Leon chuckled. "Sorry about that."

Chris waved a dismissive hand. "The last time Claire and I spoke about you and her was after Harvardville. She's never told me that the issues we discussed that day have been resolved, so I thought they weren't. I was actually really worried about you two until I saw you today. Believe me, it's a relief to see you being so gross."

Leon laughed out loud. "Yeah. Because you and Jill have _never _turned me and Claire's stomachs with your . . . affection." Leon made a face like he might vomit.

Chris smiled and opened another beer. Having gotten the rest of the story from Leon, he was feeling a bit embarrassed. Being angry and bitter, Claire had totally distorted the events of that night to make Leon out to be the bad guy. Knowing his sister as he did, Chris realized he should have kept an open mind until hearing Leon's side of things. "You know, I didn't ask you out here to quibble over Harvardville, and for getting off topic and putting you on the defensive, I'm sorry."

Leon shrugged and said, "It's fine. So, what did you really want to ask me?"

Chris took a hefty drag from his beer can to prepare himself, and then asked, "Leon . . . have you ever had sex with my sister?"

Leon was silent for a moment as he too swigged his beer, also in preparation for speaking. Finally, he answered.

"Yes."

Chris closed his eyes, having known in his heart the answer to that question, but still not being ready for confirmation of the truth. "More than once?" he finally asked. Leon nodded. Chris sighed. "I see. How long has this been going on between you?"

Leon's eyes suddenly widened. "Uh . . . ."

Chris frowned, "For how long have you been fucking my sister, Rookie?" Then Chris suddenly grinned. "It was after we got back from Rockfort and Antarctica, wasn't it? She had such a hard-on for you after you reunited her with me."

Leon frowned at being called 'Rookie' yet again, then just answered vaguely. "We've been together long enough. That's all you need to know. Claire wouldn't like it if I kiss and tell, especially if I'm telling her older brother."

Chris frowned. "If you don't tell me right now, I'll tell Claire you're fucking Angela."

Leon frowned and snapped his head around to glare at Chris. "You wouldn't _dare _hurt her like that!"

Chris looked serious for all of about five seconds, then laughed and said, "Yeah, you're right. But she thinks it anyway. If you tell me the truth, I'll back you up about Angela being a platonic thing."

Leon shook his head, still refusing. "I'll talk to her myself about Angela again. If she still doubts me, we need to work this out on our own."

Chris narrowed his eyes at his friend. He was going to get this out of Leon if it killed him.

And if he didn't tell him, it might. After all, it's not like he'd ever denied his friend anything when _he _asked.

And just like that, Chris had the answer.

He sighed dramatically and faced his friend. "I didn't want to have to do this, Bro . . . I really didn't, but you leave me no choice. You owe me, for the mission we went on two years ago."

Leon's jaw dropped. "What? You can't be serious! That was as much for Claire as it was for me!"

Chris said, "Be that as it may, you told me that the fact that I was able to put aside my grief over Jill to help you meant the world to you and you'd never forget it. You promised that you'd do anything to repay me, all I had to do was ask, no matter what it was. Now, I'm just asking you to be a man of your word." Chris knew he had him by the short hairs. Leon was practically _made _of honor and integrity.

Leon looked despondent when he realized his friend wasn't going to back down. "Chris, you're one of my best friends. No, you're more than a friend. You're like a brother to me. I . . . I don't want you to be angry with me. Please, Chris . . . don't ask me to do this."

Chris frowned again. "Why? What don't you want me to know? I already know now that you've been banging my sister. This is the easy stuff. I just asked you how long you've been getting into Claire's . . . pants . . . ." Chris's frown deepened. "Or, is it how long since you got into her little pink shorts?"

Leon backed away slowly on the couch. "Chris. Look, you wanted to know."

Chris's eyes widened, then narrowed. "You dirty son of a bitch!" he gritted out. Suddenly, Chris's fist shot out and connected with Leon's face. The punch was so fast, like a cobra strike, and Leon was so shocked, that he didn't even realize what had happened until the pain hit him a few seconds later.

"What the fuck, Chris? Are you trying to break my nose?"

Chris whispered angrily, "You're lucky I hit you in _that _head! Are you telling me you fucked my sister _in _Raccoon City?"

Leon held his nose, which he was relieved to find was neither bleeding nor broken. It was a cheap shot, but also just a love tap by Chris's standards. He had gotten off easy.

Leon sighed and held his cold beer to his face to halt the swelling as much as possible before it started. He didn't speak for a while, then finally said a quiet, "Yes." Chris's eyes became like saucers as he quickly downed the rest of his beer and opened another, which Leon snatched away before scolding him. "Stop being so melodramatic! She was in college for fuck's sake!"

"Well, that doesn't change the fact that she didn't have a lot of experience with men! Then you come along, an _older _man, and seduce her!"

Leon looked at Chris like he was insane. "You're acting like I was the age I am now when we did that. I was twenty-one. I'm only two years older than she is, and for the record, I only had been intimate with four girls prior to Claire . . . and _Claire _is the one who did the seducing." Chris was still frowning. "Look, you asked, man."

Chris just continued to stare at Leon. Finally, the former asked the latter, "How could you?"

"Don't be that way, Chris. I wasn't some lecher praying on your sister. I had no intentions of trying anything with her at first. I was just trying to do my job as a cop and keep her safe until . . . ."

"No, that's not what I meant," Chris interrupted. "I mean, how could you do it . . . physically? Or chronologically, for that matter? You two were running for your lives half the time and separated the other half, not to mention dragging a little girl around most of the time. When the hell were you able to find a moment alone and a corner to fornicate in." He pulled a face that was filled with disgust.

Leon frowned. "It wasn't like that. Claire's better than that. She's better than what we actually _did _share, but I wouldn't just drop my drawers while zombies were coming at us to plow her against some filthy wall."

"Then when did you do it?"

Leon paled. "I . . . don't want to tell you."

Chris narrowed his eyes again. "I'm gonna tell her you told me you got plastered at a White House function and let Ashley give you a handjob."

"Aww! That's sick, Chris! That's low even for you!"

Chris immediately started to laugh and said, "Yeah, that was pretty awful. Sorry, Rookie."

"And stop calling me 'Rookie'!"

"I'll stop calling you 'Rookie' when you tell me about every single time you fucked my little Claire-Bear, so I know how many times to hit you in the face."

Leon sighed. "Chris. I don't want to do this."

"Oh, I know you don't. But I've been watching you dangle Claire on a string of false hope for the better part of a decade, and frankly I'm sick of the view. You owe her the pain I plan to inflict on you." He cracked his knuckles, then patted Leon on the back. "And you owe _yourself _getting it off your chest. Talk to me, Leon. I'm only joking about the pain. When I was at my lowest over Jill, you were the one who pulled me out of my funk enough to go on with my life as much as I did. I would have quit the BSAA if not for you, which means I wouldn't have gone to Africa, and I would never have found Jilly. She's tear-assing through town in your car right now, about to become my wife, in part because of you. Let me help, for both Claire's sake and yours. I promise to be as impartial as possible, and not to hit you unless you _really _deserve it."

Leon stared off into the distance. Finally, he said, "Okay. I'll tell you everything without too much of the more personal details, as long as you promise not to tell Claire."

Chris smiled. "Of course not. That would be signing _both _our death warrants."

"It's not that. It's just that I should be the one to tell her I told you all this."

Chris's smile disappeared. "She'll kill us both," he warned.

"Look, I tell you then I tell Claire I told you, or I tell you nothing at all. I won't compromise on that. I won't keep something like this from her."

Chris sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. You two and your 'partnership'."

Leon was quiet for a while, gathering his thoughts. Chris went into the house and got a big bag of Ruffles potato chips and emptied a bunch into a bowl. He set the bowl on the wicker couch between them. Leon took a few chips and ate them. Chris did the same.

Leon swigged his beer, swallowed, and told Chris that he'd had sex with Claire five times total. Chris said he had a feeling it wasn't too many times, because every so often, she'd suddenly be walking on clouds after saying she'd seen Leon, then a couple months later she'd be filled with the deepest depression when he disappeared off the face of the earth again.

"However this ends up, Leon, I want you to stop filling her with false hope. I'm tired of always picking up the Claire pieces after you're done playing with her."

Leon sighed and nodded. "I will do my best."


	2. Chapter 1:The First Time

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

**Author's Notes: **So, this is the first chapter chronicling Leon and Claire's romantic history. I plan to do five scenes, the first four being the four most overdone moments that have been written as Cleon lemons. The fifth will be a scenario I made up that I'm surprised hasn't been done before, at least not that I've read. All flashbacks are in italics. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**CHAPTER 1: The First Time**

_**Raccoon City, New Hampshire: an office in the Raccoon City Police Department**_

_Leon had just arrived in the S.T.A.R.S. office. He was reading a journal that he'd found in Christopher Redfield's desk. It said that Chris was no longer in town. He thought of the bitter irony of the fact that the man's little sister had come looking for him to insure his safety, and was now dead because of it, when the older Redfield wasn't even there anymore._

_Leon sighed and closed the journal. He said a silent prayer for the soul of Claire Redfield. He had been very fond of her. She was the first person he'd been able to help as a police officer, and she'd been a pretty awesome girl to boot. He'd thought he'd bust his fly when she'd locked and loaded that Browning from the police cruiser glove box. At least the gun had given her a brief fighting chance, but it just didn't have enough ammunition for her to have survived. He looked at the trophy case nearby. Chris Redfield was an award-winning marksman. Perhaps he'd been the one to show Claire her way around firearms. _

_Not much good it did her now. _

_Leon's stomach twisted as he thought about the very real possibility of him finding her half-eaten body when he eventually left the police station. He knew she had to be dead. A single college kid against a city full of monsters . . . he hadn't even __**entertained**__ the idea that she might still be alive. Leon himself had barely made it to the police station with his life, and he had graduated at the top of his police academy class. _

_He just hoped that she hadn't suffered for long . . . and that he wouldn't have to see her that way. He wanted to remember her as the bright, smiling, beautiful young lady that had stolen his heart with the cock of a handgun._

'_I would have liked to have gotten to know her,' he mused. 'She seemed like an interesting girl. And definitely easy on the eyes.'_

_Suddenly, the door to the office opened and closed behind him. He turned quickly, gun in hand, pointed at the intruder._

"_Leon!" cried the familiar voice._

"_Claire?"_

_The pair rushed forward and stopped in front of each other. They stared at one another in disbelief. He realized in that moment that not only was she alive, but she didn't have a scratch on her. And she seemed to be staring at him with equal shock. Apparently, she'd assumed he hadn't survived either._

_And yet, there they both stood. _

_Without even considering the implications of his actions, Leon pulled Claire into a tight hug. "I'm glad you're still amongst the living, Claire."_

_She sighed and smiled against his chest, curling her tiny fingers into the sleeves of his uniform. "I'm so glad you're okay, Leon. I was so worried."_

_He chuckled, a deep, rich sound that made a shiver go up her spine. "Hey, I'm the police officer, here. I'm supposed to worry about _you_, not the other way around."_

_She looked up at him with a warm smile. "I know. It's just that it's your first day here, and you're new in town, so you don't know your way around. I was afraid you'd get chased by those things and go down a dead-end street or something."_

_He smiled at her concern for him. "Well, I appreciate you thinking of me, but my first priority is to get **you** out in one piece, whether it's with me or not."_

_Her smile faded. "I wouldn't want to leave without you. I want us to escape together after we find Chris. I'm sure he and Jill will know what to do."_

_Leon's face fell a little. "About that. I found something that proves that your brother isn't here in Raccoon City anymore. In fact, none of the S.T.A.R.S. are still here." He handed her the journal. "Sorry for reading it. I honestly wasn't sure if you'd made it, so I guess I was just curious about you and your family."_

_She smiled and took the book from him. She read it in silence for a few minutes. When she finished, she stealthily wiped tears from her eyes and turned to face Leon. "Thank you for this."_

_He shrugged. "It was nothing."_

_She sighed and stared at her boots for a while. Finally, she spoke, still without looking up. "So, what do we do now?"_

"_We get the hell outta Zombie Town."_

_She smirked and looked up into his eyes, her own eyes glistening with unshed tears. _

"_We're both going to die out here."_

_Leon shook his head. "Claire, I'm gonna get us out of here, or at least I'll get _**_you_** _out. Don't cry. It'll be alright."_

"_First of all, Leon, this town is overrun by those . . . flesh eaters. We'll never get past them without a vehicle, and after that backseat surprise in the police cruiser, I'm not exactly in a rush to get into another car. Secondly, do you really think it makes me feel **better** to know you might not make it out of here with me if I _**_do_**_ survive?"_

_He smiled sadly. "It's my job, first and foremost, to insure your safety. My life is secondary."_

"_Not to me."_

_He sighed. "Why?"_

"_Because you saved my life. You're the only thing keeping me sane in this whole godforsaken town. So, excuse me if I don't want to hear about your demise."_

_He smiled and hugged her again. "Thank you for caring."_

_She settled her head against his chest again, this time, wrapping her arms around his back. "We really shouldn't make a habit of this. Not that it isn't heaven, mind you," she muttered against him._

_Leon pulled away quickly. "I'm sorry. You're right. That was inappropriate."_

_She giggled. It was a delightful musical sound that made Leon smile. "I was only joking."_

"_I know, but I shouldn't . . ."_

"_I like being comforted by you. Please don't pull away from me. I need your strength."_

_He sighed. "I'm not going to **completely** distance myself from you, but I shouldn't get too close either."_

_She smiled and took his hand, caressing the backs of his fingers where they weren't covered by his fingerless gloves. "Why not?"_

'_Oh, we are __**definitely **__getting into dangerous territory now,' he thought. "Claire. Please don't."_

_She smiled slightly then stood on tiptoe and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth before whispering across his lips, "Don't what?"_

_Leon's body went rigid with the little peck. He looked down the length of the body of Claire Redfield. She was petite, but damn was she ever put together right. Her legs looked long in her too tiny denim shorts, her chest was straining at the tight black tee she wore under her graphic print vest. Her auburn hair in that ponytail made him wonder what it looked like down. The thought seemed as much a taboo as picturing her naked. _

_And there it was. As soon as he thought the word 'naked' as pertained to Claire, his accursed manhood betrayed him. _

_Claire pressed herself against his body, and then her playful smile turned into a seductive grin. "Maybe __**you**_ _want to be a party pooper, but _**_he_** _agrees with me." On the word 'he', she patted his crotch. His cock twitched under her hand, and she giggled again. _

_He chuckled. "What are you doing to me, Claire Redfield?"_

"_Seducing you. What are you gonna do about it, Leon S. Kennedy?"_

_He paused for a moment, taking in her curves, then he responded,_ "_Make a half-assed effort to stop you before giving in."_

_She smiled. "That's my hero."_

_He smiled down into her eyes, her crystal clear blue-gray eyes that seemed to generate a light from within. "Why, Claire? Why me? Why now?"_

_She smiled sadly. "Because I like you. I think you're really attractive. As to why now, I don't think there will be a later, and I want to do this." She smirked as she ran a finger over the bulge behind his fly. "I think you do, too."_

_Leon continued to stare down at her as her forlorn eyes pleaded with him not to reject her. Little did he know that he would forever more be unable to refuse this woman __anything __when she gave him that look. _

_He sighed and pulled her closer to him. "Last time I'm gonna try to discourage this."_

"_Not a chance."_

_He smiled as he bent toward her. "Can't say I didn't try." And with that said, he kissed her. Her lips were soft and moist. He pressed his to hers tentatively at first, until Claire parted her lips, inviting him to explore within. He didn't waste any time before accepting the invitation._

_As their kiss deepened, Leon backed up to sit on Chris's desk, pulling Claire along with him. He was six-foot-two and much taller than she was, so he decided to make this a little easier for them. When he was sitting down, his new lover nestled snug against him between his parted thighs. Mission accomplished. The height difference wasn't so severe. _

_He trailed his lips down her face, and onto her throat. She wrapped her hands around his torso, running feather light fingertips up his back to comb through the hair at his nape._

_While Leon worshipped her skin with his lips, Claire gave him more skin to worship. She shrugged out of her vest, letting it drop to the floor. Leon watched it fall and absently read the back of the vest. 'Made in Heaven,' he thought. He realized it matched the leather jacket that hung on the hook by Chris's desk. He smiled. He had a feeling he'd like Chris Redfield. He hoped he'd live long enough to meet him. Then Claire ran her tongue over his earlobe, and he decided it was probably poor form to be thinking about meeting a man while getting ready to pork his sister, who herself epitomized being 'made in heaven'. Claire had his undivided attention from that point forward. _

_He took off his bulletproof vest while Claire lifted her tight black T-shirt over her head. She was wearing a black seamless bra underneath that cradled and lifted her ample breasts in a way that made Leon's mouth water to taste them. _

_As he made short work of the buttons on his uniform shirt, Claire slid first her denim shorts and then her black biker shorts down her legs. She stood before him in nothing but her bra, panties, and biker boots, a very sexy combination in Leon's book. When his shirt was open, she ran her hands up his abdomen, onto his chest, and up to his shoulders, pushing the shirt off. She stared up and down his body. He'd never been so glad to be so cut in his life._

"_My, God. You are a well-put together man, Leon Kennedy."_

_He slid a hand along the side of her torso, finally gliding it around her waist to pull her against him. "You ain't so bad yourself, Red."_

_She smirked and leaned in to kiss him again. She kissed her way over to his ear and said, "We'd better hurry. I doubt we have much time to do this."_

_He nodded and slid the hand he held at the small of her back up to the back of her bra. In seconds, he had it unclipped. "You're right," he replied with a smug smile._

"_My, my. I think you've done this before."_

_He chuckled. "Maybe once or twice." That was an understatement. He might not have had sex with a lot of women, but Leon was a makeout god. He'd gotten a hold of more breasts than a gynecologist. And consequently, he knew how to treat them._

_He grabbed Claire around the waist with both his large hands and lifted her up to straddle him on the desk. She buried her tongue in his mouth as he plucked the straps of her bra off her shoulders and slowly pulled them down. When the undergarment joined the growing pile of clothing on the floor, he didn't hesitate to glide his hands onto her naked chest. _

_She groaned into his mouth as he slowly slid his fingertips around the contours of her bosom, then cupped her, resting his thumbs on the pinkish-beige tips. She broke their kiss, tilting her head back in an ecstatic sigh as he began to trace circles over the firm little peaks that crowned her breasts. _

"_Oh, my God, Leon," she sighed. "That feels so good."_

_His response was to lean down and do something that felt even better. He took one rosy nub into his mouth, rolling it with his tongue, and suckling it until her upper body was flushed. Then he switched to show reverence to the other one._

_She shuddered and gripped his shoulders, while involuntarily grinding her sex against his fly. He continued to kneed one breast while suckling the other. When she started to gyrate her hips, he slid his other hand down to grip her rear, pressing her more firmly against him._

_Overcome with the sensations he'd provoked, she grabbed his hair on both sides of his head, and forced his face back up to kiss her again. She continued to grind against him, while assaulting his mouth. _

_Incidentally, he found that the biker chick was no slouch at the art of making out, either._

_She broke the kiss, and moved her hips back enough so that she could start to undo his belt. She opened his button and zipper, and then slid her hand inside. It was Leon's turn to groan with need as she stroked him through his boxer briefs. __She pecked his lips repeatedly. _

"_Off," she demanded. "Take them off."_

_He obeyed immediately, first wrapping her legs more securely around his hips before standing up and pushing his pants down his long legs. He bent to untie his shoes, chuckling as Claire refused to let go to allow him to undress with more ease. He kicked off his shoes while she continued to cling to him. He kicked his pants the rest of the way off and sat back on the desk before toeing his socks off his feet. Each of them peeled off their fingerless gloves. They were now both naked except for their underwear and Claire's boots. He insisted that she keep them on._

_Leon laid Claire across her brother's desk, trying very hard not to think about the fact that it __**was**_ _her older brother's desk, and that if Chris ever found out what they had been doing on it, or more importantly what they were about to do next, he'd probably punch Leon in the face. _

_Or shoot him._

_He pushed those thoughts aside as Claire slid her dainty hand under the waistband of his underwear. She gripped his length and began to stroke him up and down. He closed his eyes and released a quiet moan._

"_Feels nice?"_

_He nodded and returned the favor, pulling the crotch of her thong to one side so he could press a finger against her moist heat. She sucked her teeth and bit her lip, squelching the loud cry that had threatened to emanate from her throat. _

"_Feels nice?" he asked with a smirk._

_She nodded as well. "Don't stop," she whispered._

_He leaned down to kiss her as he teased the epicenter of her sex. She rocked her hips to heighten the stimulation. He closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her small hand running back and forth along his length._

_They continued to lazily share kisses as they toyed with each other until Leon slid a finger inside her. She lost her grip on him as her body trembled. It seemed he was tired of playing. _

"_Are you ready?" he asked her softly._

"_Yes," she replied in a quivering whisper. He assumed it was from anticipation. Maybe she hadn't had sex in a while._

_He kissed her once more and then moved to stand with her still clinging to his torso. He swept an arm across Chris's desk, knocking everything off. He helped Claire to lie back across the surface of the desk. He removed his boxer briefs, moved to lie above her, and took himself in hand. He smirked with pride when Claire's eyes literally bulged at the sight of Leon's naked manhood. It wasn't like he didn't know he was big, but it was nice to know she was impressed._

_He slipped his hands under her hips, pulling her panties down and off. He chuckled when he saw her naked glory._

"_What the hell is so funny, Rookie?" she asked with a quirked auburn brow._

"_Nothing."_

"_Spill," she commanded, closing her thighs tightly, denying him entry until he explained why her vagina was such a point of amusement._

"_Sorry. It's just that your hair is such an unusual shade of red, that when we met I thought it couldn't possibly be natural."_

"_Yeah? So, it's a dye job. So what?"_

"_Well, yeah, but I was sure you were gonna end up being a brunette pretending to be a redhead, but it's the other way around, You're even redder down there than your current hair color."_

_She narrowed her eyes. "Look, I tried to dye it brown after I got tired of people calling me 'Ginger Spice'. It turned out dark auburn. So sue me."_

"_I'm sorry." H__e chuckled and kissed her in apology. "It's just that you continue to surprise me, Claire Redfield."_

"_Shut it, you." _

_He kissed her again, running his fingers through her ponytail. "I bet it's beautiful when it's red."_

_She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Thanks. At least __**you **__think my natural color is pretty." She kissed him in gratitude. She couldn't stay mad at him. "I wish you'd had a chance to see it natural," she whispered with a sad smile._

_He kissed her in return. "I'll see it when it grows out."_

"_Yeah, right!" she chuckled. "That'll happen where __**you're**_ _going!"_

_This time, he parted her thighs and slid two fingers into her sex, and then moved them in and out of her. "Am I going somewhere I wasn't told about?"_

_She moaned then gripped his shoulders, wrapping her legs around his thighs. When she regained the power of speech, she scolded him. "Leon, don't be naïve. Neither of us is gonna live through this." She smirked. "And where you're going is to Hell, for doing me on my brother's desk."_

_He stopped fingering her, ignoring her pun. He met her gaze solemnly. "Claire . . . is __that_ _the only reason you're doing this with me? Because you think we're gonna die today and I'm . . . convenient?"_

_She shook her head vehemently. "No, Leon. Never." She lowered her eyes and sighed. "That's only the reason I'm doing this _**_now_**_. Well, except for the convenient part. I should smack you for that." She smiled when she heard his deep chuckle above her. "If I thought we had a chance in hell of survival, I'd let you do this after the customary three dates. I just don't think we have that kind of time, and I **want** to do this with you." She lifted her gaze to stare deeply into his baby blues. "Only with you."_

_He sighed, starting to have some serious second thoughts. "I'll ask you one more time. Why me, Claire?"_

_She smiled. "Because you're my hero, Leon. You saved my life, you're a decent guy and you're really hot to boot. Why _**_wouldn't_** _I want you to be my first lover?"_

"_Wait, what?" he exclaimed._

_She looked at him blandly. "What?"_

"_**You're a virgin?**" he practically shouted._

"_Tell the undead world why don't cha?"_

_He lowered his voice. "Are you a virgin, Claire?"_

"_Yeah," she replied with a shrug. "For another few seconds anyway," she added with a naughty smirk and a wiggle of her eyebrows. _

_Leon's jaw dropped, and then he started to move off of her. She used her legs to tighten her hold on him. "Hey! Don't be a prude, Leon. I'm a big girl, and this is what I want." She took his rigid manhood in hand again. "This is what we __**both **__want."_

"_I didn't know."_

_She shrugged. "I didn't tell you. I didn't realize it was going to be such a big deal."_

"_Not a big deal? Claire . . . this is **not** the type of decision you should make under these kinds of circumstances. Especially since I'm not as certain as you are that we're zombie chow. What happens when I'm right, we escape, and you regret this?" He shook his head and sighed. "I really do like you, Claire. I don't want you to regret losing your virginity to me."_

_She smiled into his eyes and caressed his cheek. "Leon, if by some miracle we survive this horror, the last thing I will ever feel about making love to you will be regret. Women lose their virginity in a lot of stupid ways, often because they were pressured into it when they weren't ready. My virginity will be made history on __**my **__terms. And I'm completely capable of making this kind of decsion, zombie disaster or not. I know what I'm doing. And besides . . . I'm not _**_losing_** _my virginity at all, Leon. I'm giving it . . . to you."_

_He sighed and closed his eyes, lowering his head. "Are you absolutely certain about this, Claire? About me?"_

"_I've never been more sure of anything in my life."_

_With a heavy sigh, he nodded his ascent. "I think I have a condom in my wallet."_

"_Save it. I want to feel you, not latex."_

"_Claire, I've never had sex without a condom."_

"_And I've never had sex. Good news! That means we'll _**_both _**_be safe from STDs!"_

_Again, he was not amused by her odd sense of humor. "What if you get pregnant?"_

"_I'm on the pill. My brother insisted when I left for college. Now then, you can still hold onto your little 'we're-not-gonna-die' fantasy without guilt about potentially knocking me up."_

_He opened his eyes and looked into hers. Those bright, shimmering eyes. They were cool as a cucumber, hot as fire, innocent as a virgin, and dirty as a working girl all at the same time. Claire was an enigma that he could happily spend the rest of his life, be it hours or decades, trying to unravel, so long as he could continue to look into those eyes. He knew when he looked into her eyes that the decision was already made for both of them._

"_You were right. I'm going to Hell," he muttered as he began to stroke himself back to fully erect._

"_See you there," she said with a laugh._

_They exchanged no more words for the moment. He placed himself at her entrance then paused to kiss her. "This will hurt. For that, I'm sorry."_

"_I know it will. I'm ready."_

_He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself, then pushed against her opening._

"_Ahhhh!" she whined._

"_Relax for me, Sweetheart. If you don't, it will hurt more."_

_She clenched her teeth. "I'm trying," she muttered as she dug her fingers into his straight locks, tugging a bit as the sharp sting in her nether regions gave way to a horrible burning sensation as he stretched her._

_She breathed in and out through her nose rapidly, then began to relax. When he felt her grip on his hair slacken, he pushed forward a bit more. She bit his shoulder to keep from crying out. _

"_That's it, Baby. Give me back some of the pain. I can take it. I promise, it'll be over soon." _

_He pushed forward a couple of inches this time, and felt her hymen give way. Her head fell back on the desk with a soft thud as she bit down on her fist. Tears spilled out from the corners of her tightly closed eyes._

_Leon kissed her eyelids and spoke soothing words to her for over a minute. Once her shaking and tears were under control, he asked her a question completely out of left field._

"_How do you remove band-aids, Claire? Do you rip them off or peal them away slowly?"_

"_Rip 'em off," she mumbled around her fist. "Why?"_

"_Just asking." _

_And with that, Leon thrust himself all the way inside. Claire's mouth fell open. "Oh, Sweet Jesus!" she shrieked in his ear. "It really hurts, Leon! You're too big! I didn't know it would hurt so much!" she sobbed._

_He kissed her cheek tenderly. "Do you wanna stop, Sweetheart? I understand if you do."_

_She shook her head. "It will feel better soon?" Her voice was so small, almost child like._

_He stroked her bangs from in front of her face. "Yeah."_

"_Okay." She closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his gentle caress on her face. "Just . . . give me a moment . . . to get used to the feeling."_

"_Whatever you need, Sweetheart."_

_While Claire tried to acclimate herself to the feel of a man filling her completely for the first time, Leon caressed more of her body, attempting to increase her pleasure so the pain would subside more quickly._

_After the burning had mostly dissipated, and Claire was starting to tremble with need again, she kissed her lover. _

"_You can move now," she whispered._

_Leon smiled at her as he slowly slid out of her warmth until only the tip of his shaft was still inside. Then he moved his hips forward, just as slowly, to fill her about halfway._

"_Ohhhhh," she sighed. _

_Oh, yes. He was right. She most definitely felt good. To him at least. "You okay?" he whispered against her lips._

"_Please . . . keep going."_

_He moved to a more comfortable position, lifting his torso off her chest, holding himself up on his fists and knees. He stared down at the woman beneath him, her breasts heaving, her face flushed, and her sparkling eyes pleading with him not to stop._

"_One thing first," he requested._

"_Yes?"_

_He reached behind her head and lifted it, pulling the elastic from her hair. The dark russet locks spilled out into his hand. "So much better," he sighed, massaging her scalp._

_She smiled warmly. He was so sweet. "No regrets, Leon. Not now . . . not ever."_

_He returned her smile. "Too late now, anyway. I suppose we don't have a choice but to just go with it. Can't have you calling me a rookie for _**_everything_**_."_

_She giggled. "No, we can't have that." They kissed again, Claire lifting her head and Leon lowering his. When they moved their lips apart, he began a slow rhythm of easing in and out of her. _

_She sighed and rested her head on the desk. She was even less prepared for how good he felt inside her than she was for the initial pain. She didn't know enough of how she should move to do much more than lie there and let him pleasure her. Not that he seemed to be complaining. His face was a masque of determined passion that had her body reacting with even more need. She glided her hands over the planes of muscles that graced her rookie's magnificent body, trying to return the feelings of euphoria he was giving to her. _

_Inspired by her dainty caress, he shifted the weight of his upper body to one hand as he lifted his right to caress her breasts in turn. As he rolled her left nipple between his fingers, she bit her lip to keep from screaming in ecstasy. When she finally spoke, it was to pant an order up at him._

"_Faster, Leon." He wordlessly obliged, causing her panting to become more broken. _

_Leon was silent as he watched her writhe beneath him. She was so beautiful, so fucking beautiful. As she slid her hands around him and massaged the muscles of his shoulders and upper back, he found himself losing control. He began thrusting into her more forcefully. _

_She moaned his name, and wrapped her arms and legs more tightly around him. Her fingers danced across his lower back, and then dug into his muscles, pulling him against her with more speed and force._

"_You want it harder, Sweetheart?" he whispered._

"_Ohhhh, God, Leon! Yes!" she replied breathlessly_

_He lifted himself to sit on his haunches, pulling out of her. He cringed a bit at the sight of her virgin blood on his manhood, but shook it off quickly. He pulled her closer and pushed her legs back towards her, essentially folding her in half. _

"_Hold the backs of your thighs," he ordered, also quite out of breath._

"_Okay."_

_He moved closer to her as she obeyed his command. He leaned over her and entered her again, penetrating completely this time._

"_Holy shit!" she hissed._

"_Feels good, doesn't it?"_

"_Oh, God! Leon, it's so good!"_

_He kissed her fiercely. "You gonna cum for me?" he whispered. She nodded, her mouth agape, but unable to do much more than make sharp little vocalizations in time with his thrusting. "You're so fucking tight, Claire. I can't believe how tight you are." He put a hand between them to rub her clit. Her face contorted and her eyes widened. "Fuck! You just got so much tighter, Baby. You close?" She nodded slowly, and then stiffened as she regained the power of speech._

"_LEON!"_

_He was the next to stiffen. "Claire!" he gritted out from between clenched teeth. He thrust into her rapidly, plowing her with reckless abandon, unable in the throes of near orgasm to be careful for her sake. She couldn't blame him. It was her own damn fault for feeling so incredible around his cock. _

_He buried himself deep and kissed her just as deeply as the first waves of release washed over him. They both groaned as he began to shiver, shooting his load deep inside her. _

_The feel of his climax triggered a second for her, and she gripped his back with her nails, digging ten small furrows in his skin. He didn't even notice the pain. _

_They gasped through their common bond of ecstasy, Leon absently dragging her left arm from around his back and taking a hold of Claire's left hand, intertwining their fingers. When the last ripples had passed up and down his spine, he collapsed on top of her. She sighed and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly, and then caressing his back._

_When their breathing had calmed to normal, and the erratic thrumming of their hearts had slowed to a more comfortable pace, he lifted his head, which now weighed about a hundred tons. He stared into her eyes. _

"_You're so gorgeous, Claire."_

_She smiled. "Thank you, Leon."_

_He grinned at her. He didn't know it, but she was thinking that she could fall in love with that grin. Truth be told, she wasn't so sure she hadn't already. "It's not necessary for you to thank me for telling the truth," he assured her. He pulled out of her slowly. She winced, shivered, and sighed blissfully. _

"_I wasn't thanking you for the compliment. I was thanking you for making my first time so special."_

_He gave her a disbelieving look. "I had sex with you on your brother's desk."_

_She sighed and pulled him closer for a tight embrace. "Don't cheapen what we shared, Leon. I don't care where it happened. It was beautiful."_

_He sighed and pressed his forehead against hers. "Claire?"_

"_Hmm?"_

"_Will you go out on three dates with me?"_

_She chuckled. "Absolutely." _

* * *

"So, that's basically how it happened . . . minus the details, of course," Leon concluded, having told Chris the bare minimum while silently reminiscing about his first sexual interlude with Claire.

He pulled himself out of his musings and looked at Chris. The other man was staring back at him. Neither of them said a word as they stared at each other, unblinking.

And then, Chris punched Leon in the face . . . again.

Leon sighed and pressed a beer can to his jaw, reflecting on the irony of how right he'd been so many years ago in Raccoon City about Chris's reaction if he ever found out that Leon had made love to an untouched Claire on Chris's desk less than two hours after meeting the nineteen-year-old. He rolled his eyes then closed them, concentrating on the relief he felt from the chilled aluminum against his face. His nose wasn't swollen, so he hoped his jaw would be okay with the help of his impromptu alcoholic icepack.

"Look, there's no way for me to say I claimed your little sister's virginity on your desk without it sounding awful, so I'll grant you that punch. But, I still want you to know that I meant no disrespect. I wasn't trying to get into her shorts, and I never thought that would happen, especially not there, but I was falling in love with her. So, when she kissed me, and I asked her if she was sure, and she said 'yes' . . . well." He sighed and drank some more beer. "I don't regret it, Chris. It might not have been the right thing to do, but I don't regret what we shared, and I'm proud to have been her first lover, _and _the first man who ever felt her orgasm."

Chris's eyes widened. "You got her off?"

Leon looked surprised at the urgency with which the question was asked. "Twice."

Chris smiled, male pride for his friend winning out over fraternal protectiveness for the moment. He clinked his can against Leon's. His friend flinched as the force of the two cans striking resounded in his jaw. "Nice one, Rookie." Then he realized something Leon said. "Wait . . . what do you mean you were in love with her?"

"I meant what I said. I fell in love with Claire from the moment she pulled the clip on that Browning, slapped the magazine back in, cocked it, set the safety, and put it in the waistband of her too short shorts."

Chris smirked. "Yeah. And then ten minutes later, you were in love with Ada."

Leon said, "No, I just thought Ada was attractive. But I still only wanted Claire."

Chris quoted back what Leon said to Ashley at the end of the mission to Spain about Ada being a part of him he'd never be rid of.

Leon quirked a suspicious dirty blond brow. "When did you start gossiping with Ashley?"

"Ark told me that Lott told him that Ashley told him what you told her in Spain." Leon frowned, now wondering why _Lott _was gossiping about him with Ashley. Chris saw the look on his face and chuckled. He knew exactly what Leon was thinking. "Lott's jealous. He likes Ashley, but she won't shut up about you. Well, Ashley likes him, too. She gets that you were just a crush, and she was trying to reassure him that you were already taken. Being as he was still jealous, he blabbed it to his dad, who you already know can't keep anything to himself. How Ark Thompson ended up as a _secret _agent, I will never understand. The only way anyone has ever been able to shut his trap is by wiping his memory."

Leon laughed and said, "Don't make fun of my best friend in his absence."

Chris chuckled. "I'll stop making fun of Big Mouth when you stop laughing at my comments." Leon chuckled again. "Now," Chris continued. "Getting back to Ada . . . ."

Leon's smile faded. "I admit I said what she says I did, but I didn't mean it how Ashley took it. I had thought Ada was dead since Raccoon City. Dead because of me, Chris. I had finally accepted that fact before leaving for the rescue mission to Spain, and I swore I would not fail to protect Ashley as I'd failed to protect Ada. And who should I find there? Fucking Ada, alive and kicking . . . kicking my ass, to be precise." Leon started to loosen his belt and smirked at Chris. "Wanna see the scar?"

Chris pulled a face and said, "Absolutely not." Leon chuckled. Chris took a swig of beer and sighed. "If that scar is from your dealings with being in an outbreak situation with Ada the same way you dealt with being in one with Claire in Raccoon City, I _really _don't wanna see it."

Leon looked surprised and shook his head. "Chris. I've _never _slept with Ada. Remember, I thought she was dead until a few years ago, and when I found her again, she put a gun to the back of my head and stole the Las Plagas sample after I saved her life. Then she left me with a jet ski key and two minutes to find Ashley and get out of the compound. I was lucky to make it out alive." He took another hefty swig of beer. "She plays games too much. If I fucked her, I'd be afraid to wake up without genitals. No, thank you." He paused for a while looking off into the distance, contemplating whether or not to tell Chris the whole story. Finally, he decided that it might be the proof he needed to convince his on again/off again girlfriend's brother to stop hitting him in the face. His mind made up, he continued. "She tried you know."

"What do you mean?" Chris asked with a look of confusion.

Leon replied, "Ada . . . she tried to seduce me. She showed up at my condominium about a month after Spain, with a short trench coat on and nothing but a teddy underneath."

"What did you do?" Chris asked, chomping on potato chips with a look of interest. This was getting good.

"I drew my gun from under my pillow and told her to get the fuck out of my home before I killed her."

Chris smiled. "What was her reaction?"

Leon frowned. "She looked shocked. I think she thought that I would still be that innocent, enamored young rookie cop that she fucked over in Raccoon City. Well, she's a big part of the reason that he's dead. Now, all that's left is someone that no one but a sociopath double agent like her, a grieving sister-slash-special operative like Angela, and a spoiled teenager like Ashley would ever want."

"And Claire."

Leon smiled. "Yeah. And for some reason, Claire. I'll never understand what she saw in me that night to want to give me such a precious gift. What's got me even more stunned is why she has always insisted that she has never regretted it, even when we were in a bad place."

Chris grinned and said, "Leon, you don't give yourself enough credit."

Leon shrugged and said, "What credit is there that I deserve? The gloomy person I've become was never good enough for Claire."

"You think that, and yet you had sex with her four more times."

He sighed. "I hear ya, Chris. It's just that I'm weak when it comes to Claire. She could probably just as easily ask me to shoot myself in the ass, as make love to her, and I'd still have done it. She's just so . . . Chris, I don't even have the words to describe how much I love your sister." He turned to his friend. "For disrespecting you by doing what we did on your desk, Chris, I am so sorry. I just couldn't tell her 'no'. Not when she looked like she would be so disappointed."

Chris sighed. They sat in silence for a while. Finally, Chris said, "It's cool."

Leon turned to his friend, a genuine look of surprise on his face. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

"But, I mean . . . I fucked your sister on your desk," he muttered in disbelief.

Chris frowned. "Yeah! Yeah, I _know! _Shit! Would you rather I stay pissed at you?"

Leon sighed and looked down at his hands sadly. "That's damned decent of you, Bro." The secret service agent slugged the BSAA agent in the arm. "Thank you, Chris. I thought maybe we wouldn't still be friends after you found out."

Chris smirked and returned the slug in the arm, more playful than the two prior punches he'd delivered to Leon's person. "Ah, quit your moping around. Let's just move on. When was the second time?"

Leon finished his beer before answering. "After we escaped and I was recovering."

Chris popped a fresh beer for each of them. "Do tell."


	3. Chapter 2: On the Run

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

**Author's Notes: **Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I appreciate it. I hope those who enjoyed it also like this chapter. There's a loooong lemon in it. My gift to you.

* * *

**CHAPTER 2: On the Run **

_**Atlantic City, New Jersey: a one-bedroom suite in the Atlantic Palace Suites Hotel **_

_Leon, Claire, and Sherry were now five hundred miles and one week away from Raccoon City. Or rather, what was left of Raccoon City. _

_The two young adults had been shocked when they were sitting in a diner in upstate New York drinking coffee and eating breakfast when they heard about how the city they'd vacated only a few days before had met its end. Sherry continued to eat her Belgian waffle, showing no sign that she registered the news at all._

_Leon remained quiet and solemn for the rest of the day. He was still very tired from the constant pain and throbbing of the bullet wound in his left shoulder. Finding out that he and the two young ladies with him could just as easily be nuclear waste instead of eating a cheap breakfast wasn't helping his mood. _

_Sherry dealt with her grief by having nightmares every time she closed her eyes for more than five minutes. Thankfully for Claire and Leon, the frequency of Sherry's nightmares had decreased during their travels._

_Claire took out her frustrations over the tragedy on the highway and everyone else who traveled on it by sinking into a bitter road rage as she drove the three of them south on Route 1. She had only raised Leon's and Sherry's eyebrows briefly when she'd hotwired a stolen car for them the first time. She had smirked and said a friend taught her. Leon reminded himself that she was a biker chick and probably had a lot of criminal friends. Little did he know that it was his own almost colleague in the police department, Jill Valentine, who'd taught her._

_Despite her brutal treatment of other drivers on the road all day, that night, Claire had gone to bed in their motel room and cried herself to sleep. She had nightmares about the faces of all the people who she, Sherry, and Leon had tried to convince to escape with them in Raccoon City. None of them had listened, choosing to hide in their homes and various reinforced buildings instead. Claire dreamt about them being blown to atoms by the nuclear warhead that had reduced the once quiet New England hamlet to a crater._

_During that first night, Leon had slept on the couch in their room as they didn't want Sherry to be weirded out by them if they slept in the same bed. Instead, Claire and Sherry had shared the king sized bed._

_Leon had watched Claire and Sherry toss and turn, moaning in their sleep from nightmares of zombies and mutant giants with huge eyeballs on their shoulders. When he had gotten up to cover Claire when she kicked her blanket on the floor, he learned that one should never approach her when she's asleep . . . at least, not without body armor. When he had re-covered her with the fallen blanket, she had nailed him with a fist to the left shoulder._

"_AHHH!" Leon had screamed and fallen to the ground. She had missed the bullet wound, but the hit had still sent painful vibrations shooting through his injured joint._

"_Oh, my God! Leon, I'm so sorry!" _

_He had tried to tell her it was okay, but the only sound he'd been able to produce was a weak grumble of agony. Sherry had never even flinched. They'd quickly discovered in their travels that she was a deep sleeper when she wasn't having nightmares._

_Claire had helped Leon up from the floor and back to the couch, had tended his wound very carefully, and had then given him a dose of Percocet stolen from a pharmacy just outside of Raccoon City. She had pilfered pain killers of many types, and everything she would need to suture Leon's bullet wound, and then care for it. Again, Leon had raised a brow at her when she'd picked the lock on the back door of the pharmacy. She brushed a tear from her eye when she thought about how that mom-and-pop pharmacy and the elderly couple hiding within who were too frightened to leave with their three young visitors were now so much radioactive dust in the wind that blew around the place where Raccoon City, New Hampshire used to be._

_Once Leon was settled on the couch, Claire had kissed him good night. He had smiled. It was the first kiss they'd shared since they had made love in the S.T.A.R.S. office. He had thanked her and gone back to sleep._

_Now, they were in a suite in Atlantic City, New Jersey, hiding from the Umbrella agents that had been following them in a vehicle with the red and white logo on the door. It was easy to disappear in a place like Atlantic City, especially after Claire traded out their car for a different one, and started to wear a blonde wig. Sherry wore a brunette wig of curly pigtails. Leon wore a baseball cap and grew out his facial hair into a scruffy mustache and beard. They had successfully given their pursuers the slip. _

"_Leon, do you need more Percocet?"_

"_No, Sherry. I'm okay right now. Thanks." He smiled at her and held out his right arm. "Come watch TV with me, kiddo."_

_The little girl grinned and got up from the table where she'd just finished reading one of the Oz books. She ran over to him and plopped down beside him on the pullout couch in the outer sitting area of their suite. She curled up against him and rested her head on his chest. They were both more comfortable than they'd been in days, thanks to the accommodations._

_Atlantic Palace was a non-casino suite hotel. Without a casino, it was cheaper to stay in than most Atlantic City hotels, so it was within their limited budget. However, to compete with the casino hotels that shared its boardwalk locale, it made up for the lack of on-site gambling with lots of amenities. First of all, every room was a suite. In addition, the staff was super friendly and helpful. Room service was particularly inexpensive, and the food was excellent. The hotel even offered a free daily continental breakfast to its guests. The three Raccoon City survivors loaded up on the food every morning to cut down on their expenses. _

_Not that __**that**_ _was a problem anymore._

_Leon and Claire had both emptied their bank accounts back in New Hampshire, so every transaction they made was with cash only, and therefore, untraceable. And then, Leon had quadrupled their money at the blackjack tables, so they were currently in good shape financially._

"_What are we watching?" Sherry asked as Leon wrapped his good arm around her._

"_New show. C.S.I."_

"_Cool. I love this show."_

"_Me too. You finished your book right on time. It's just starting."_

_They watched the show for the next hour. Claire had gone to the business center to use the internet and track any news about Raccoon and Umbrella. She came in and joined them for the last ten minutes of their show. When it ended, Claire and Leon shared a smile over Sherry's head as the young girl yawned into Leon's arm._

"_Sherry, it's late," Claire announced. "You should hit the hay. We're getting up early in the morning to go load up on the continental breakfast."_

"_Okay, Claire."_

_The little girl went into the bedroom, and came out with her pajamas in her hand. She went into the bathroom to shower and change. While the child was out of the room, Leon absently pulled Claire against him, and she rested her head on the right side of his chest._

"_How are you feeling?" she asked him as she absently stroked his abdomen._

"_Fine."_

"_Hurting?"_

"_Not right now."_

_She hugged his middle. "I'm glad."_

_He kissed her crown and squeezed her closer to him._

_Leon changed the channel until they got to the eleven o'clock news. They watched in silence until the first commercial break. Claire sighed. "Looks like the cover-up is still firmly in place."_

"_Yeah. Looks that way," Leon replied sullenly. The news anchors were still calling Raccoon City's destruction 'a tragic accident' caused by an explosion at the nuclear power plant that had been located on the outskirts of the town. "How about the underground websites you mentioned? Did they have anything useful to say?"_

_Claire shook her head. "Nothing. This thing must go all the way to Washington if even the conspiracy nerds at Harvard haven't got a clue."_

"_How do you know them, anyway?"_

"_I was a sophomore before all this happened."_

_Leon looked at her in surprise. "You went to Harvard?"_

"_Yeah." She turned her head up to face him. "What? A girl can't rock Harleys __**and**_ _textbooks?"_

_Leon smiled outwardly, but he had to admit to himself that he was more than a little intimidated. He wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but he was more street-smart than book-smart, for certain. He'd always been a bit of a jock, playing baseball and basketball in high school, but his average grades were B's and C's. He'd gotten an associate degree before going into the police academy, but only because he'd heard he would have a better chance of making it to high rank with some college under his belt. _

_However, the woman lying against him at that moment wasn't just book-smart, she was ivy league-smart. For the first time in what would be a long and tumultuous partnership between them, Leon felt unworthy of her._

_Claire caressed his stubbly cheek before kissing it and getting up to go get ready for bed. He watched her go into the bedroom, then winked at Sherry as she exited the bathroom. Claire blew him a kiss as she went into the bathroom. He smiled, feeling more at ease with his place in her affections._

_Once he was alone again, Leon returned his attention to the nightly news. When Claire finished washing up, he pulled out the pullout bed from the couch, and then grabbed a pair of sweatpants before taking over the bathroom. He showered, being cautious of his shoulder, and got dressed. He brushed his teeth and changed his wound dressing. He didn't wear a shirt, preferring to leave his shoulder uncovered at night. _

_When he was finished, he went back out to his pull-out couch. He was surprised to find Claire lying there reading a copy of Popular Mechanic_._ She was dressed in a pair of women's sweatpants that were the same dark blue color as his own, as well as a tight heather grey tee. They'd stocked up on clothes during their travels at a Target in southern Massachusetts. _

"_Claire? What are you doing out here?"_

"_Not that you're complaining or anything," she muttered then licked her fingertip before turning the page._

"_Definitely not," he said as his eyes traveled her figure._

"_Sherry snores. It's like sleeping next to a '57 Chevy in desperate need of a new muffler. I'm sleeping with you tonight."_

_Leon chuckled. "You know, I thought that ruckus was you the first night."_

_She smiled. "Jerk."_

_He laughed as he stretched out beside Claire. "Sorry. I mean, I'm not saying you look like you snore. I thought it was unlikely for it to be you making that racket, either. But it was at least more likely to be an adult than Sherry. I can't tell you how shocked I was when I realized that God awful sound was coming from such a tiny girl."_

_They both laughed then Claire tossed her magazine onto the coffee table Leon had pushed aside to make room for his bed. She leaned over her bedmate's torso to kiss him lingeringly._

"_Mmm. Minty. Seems I've discovered another perk to sleeping out here."_

"_Likewise." He rubbed his right hand up and down her back. She sighed and closed her eyes, relishing his gentle caress. He misinterpreted her response to his affections. "Tired?"_

_She opened her eyes and smiled. "Not at all. But if __**you're**__ tired, I can move over so you can get some sleep."_

"_No, I'm not tired." He kissed her. She returned the kiss and caressed his chest. "That feels nice."_

"_From this end, too," she said with a sultry little smile._

_He smirked. "You flirtin' with me, Harvard?"_

"_Maybe," she replied noncommittally. "You interested?"_

"_Maybe." He pulled her hair tie off, freeing the mass of shiny reddish-brown silk that he coveted so much. "God, I love your hair."_

"_I love your hair, too," she said, combing her fingers through his straight blond fringe, and then pushing it back from his face. "It's find of emo, but it's sexy on you."_

_He chuckled. "Kind of a backhanded compliment, there."_

"_Sorry."_

"_No worries. I'm made of tougher stuff." _

_She smiled seductively. "Show me."_

"_How?"_

"_Fool around with me, bad shoulder and all."_

_He chuckled. "I didn't think you wanted to do that with me anymore."_

"_Of course I do. I've been stealing your kisses for a week." She demonstrated her point. "But we've been running for our lives with a kid in tow. Not to mention the fact that you were hurt. I only ask now because Sherry is sleeping the sleep of a thousand Benadryls and you look like you're doing better."_

_He chuckled. "I am, thanks to you."_

"_My __**pleasure**__, Officer Kennedy." She wiggled her eyebrows at him. Her last statement, apparently, was meant to be a double entendre. _

_He narrowed his eyes. "You're a naughty woman, Claire Redfield."_

"_I will have you know I am a perfect angel. Now, take off your pants."_

_Leon started to chuckle. "I still have that condom in my wallet."_

"_Dude, do you have something against my vagina that you keep trying to put a layer between us?"_

_He barked a laugh. "No! But you're not on the pill this time. The last thing we need you to be right now is pregnant."_

_She smirked. "Who says I'm not on the pill?"_

_He quirked a brow. "You still have your birth control pills?"_

_She shook her head. "No. Those are in my dorm room. But I did replace them. I stole half a year's worth of Ortho TriCyclen from that pharmacy outside Raccoon. I haven't missed a dose."_

"_Why'd you steal birth control pills?" he asked in confusion._

_She started to laugh. "Leon, I was completely compliant to my prescription while I was a virgin. Do you think that now that I'm getting laid I'd miss a pill?"_

_He smiled and nodded. She stole them so they could be together without worry. He was relieved. She must have considered him to be more than just a one-time thing all along. _

"_We'll need to be quiet."_

"_Not particularly. Sherry would need a grenade to go off on her pillow to wake up once she's asleep. For example, she fell out of bed two days ago. Never woke up." Leon's laughter redoubled at the mental image. _

_While he tried to switch his mood from amused to aroused, he stood up on the bed to obey her order to take off his pants. He smiled down at Claire as he untied the drawstring on his sweats. She crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. "Quit making faces at me," he chuckled. "I'm already laughing at Sherry. You're gonna make it impossible for me to get a hard-on."_

_She gestured for him to hurry. "Less talking . . . more stripping."_

_He laughed again. She was determined to make him chuckle his way through their makeout session. He got his laughter mostly under control as he dropped his pants and boxers._

_He stretched out beside her again, his head resting against the top of the couch. Now naked, he was surprisingly uncomfortable with the fact that she was still clothed. "Aren't you gonna get undressed?"_

"_In a little bit. Let me just enjoy the view for a minute." She stared down his body. "I've missed seeing you like this." She inched closer, lounging with her head held up just above his right arm. "You're so damned attractive, it should be illegal."_

_He smiled. "Thank you. Coming from someone as sexy as you are, that's a hell of a compliment."_

_She didn't thank him with words. Instead, she placed a hand on his bicep and leaned down to kiss his good shoulder. She then looked up to face him and pressed her lips to his. They kissed a few times, as she ran her hand lightly over his six pack. _

_When they parted, she admitted to him, "I want to try something new with you."_

"_Like what?"_

"_Can I . . . go down on you?" She sounded nervous, like she was afraid she'd overstepped some invisible boundary. _

_He stared at her in disbelief for a moment. Finally, he replied. "Does a man exist who would __**actually**_ _answer 'no' to that question?"_

_She giggled. "I take it that's a 'yes'?" He nodded. "Okay. I warn you that I've never done this before."_

"_I don't think there's a wrong way to do that to a man between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five." _

"_How old are you?"_

"_Twenty-one."_

"_That's all? You're only two years older than I am. I thought you were older."_

"_Yeah?" _

"_Uh huh. I thought you were the same age as Chris." She placed her chin on his shoulder. _

"_How old is he?"_

"_Six years older than me."_

"_Gee, thanks. Just call me old."_

_She chuckled. "I'm not saying you look older. You just carry yourself in a mature way. And that Ada chick was like Chris's age, and you two dug each other, so . . . . Oh! Oh, Leon. I'm sorry! I didn't think." Her eyes were apologetic._

_His face was solemn as he stared off into the distance. Finally, he sighed and said, "It's fine, Claire."_

_Her eyes fell to the mattress, guiltily. "No, it's not. I've upset you. I didn't mean to be insensitive. I know how much you cared about her."_

_He looked down at the top of her head. "Look, can we maybe not talk about this right now?"_

_She nodded but didn't look up. "Sure. Again, I'm sorry." She paused. "If you want me gone, I can go back in the bedroom with Sherry."_

_He frowned. "There's no need for that."_

_She nodded. "I guess you want to get some rest, then."_

_He looked down his body. He was still not hard. He sighed. "Not necessarily."_

"_Oh. Well, here." She reached onto the floor and picked up his sweats from where they'd been tossed a little earlier. _

_He frowned at her. "I see. You know, I'm not the one who brought her up. What are you punishing __**me**_ _for?"_

_Claire lifted her head and stared at him uncertainly. "Punishing you? What are you talking about?"_

"_You bring up something painful for me to discuss, and then you reject me because I'd rather continue fooling around than talk about it?"_

_Her eyes widened in shock. "You still want to . . . with me?"_

"_Of course. I mean, I'm kinda naked here."_

_She looked down at him and pointed at his cock. "__**He's **__still mad at me."_

_Leon's frown finally disappeared. He chuckled. "No, he's just sad because no one's touched him yet. Poor lonely fella." _

_Claire giggled and dropped his pants back onto the carpet. "I guess I can do something to cheer him up . . . if __**you**_ _don't mind."_

_He smiled at her longingly. "I don't mind at all."_

_They dropped all talk of Ada for the night, but in the back of Claire's mind, she continued to kick around the idea that Leon would rather be lying next to the late Asian woman instead of her. Now it was Claire who felt like her partner was only interested because __**she**_ _was convenient. She pushed away those thoughts and decided to just go with the flow. She'd take whatever she could get from him._

_He lifted his arm so she could have better access to his body. She moved closer to him. He then lowered his arm onto her back, lightly caressing her soft skin where her T-shirt had ridden up. She slowly massaged his soft cock, coaxing it to become hard. Even when it was flaccid, it was intimidating. She looked up at his face expecting to see indifference. Instead, she saw passion. He leaned forward to kiss her, tracing her lips with his tongue._

_When their kiss ended this time, Claire lifted his penis upright and lowered her head toward it. At the sudden feel of warmth and wetness, Leon's head dropped back against the top of the couch. He moaned softly as he continued to slowly run his fingers up and down her back, through her hair, and down onto her backside. She shivered with delight._

_After a minute or so of gentle suction and playful licks, she lifted her head to look into his eyes for approval that she'd done it right. He caressed her cheek. "I want to see you, too now," he muttered._

_Without a word, she got up onto her knees and pushed her pants down. She wore a black thong underneath. His eyes traveled down her thighs along with her sweats. "Stand up."_

_She obeyed the order, getting to her feet on the mattress. This time, he rose to his knees and grabbed the sides of her sweatpants. He lowered them then pulled them off her one leg at a time. He gazed up at her and smiled. He slid his hand up her flat stomach, pushing the T-shirt up with it. He bent to kiss her belly, gliding his hands around to give her rear a squeeze. _

_He smiled up at her. She returned the smile and bent to kiss him. He lifted the hem of her shirt and pulled it up over her head before tossing it onto the floor. Her bra was black with a pink rose embroidered onto the left cup. "Very sexy," he said._

"_Thanks." _

_He kneaded her breasts then bent to kiss her naval. She giggled and dropped to her knees again. He pulled her closer and kissed her, unhooking her bra in the process. She deepened the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. He pulled the bra forward on her outstretched arms. She moved back so he could get it off. He threw it in the same direction he'd thrown her shirt._

_He massaged her breasts, tweaking her nipples, as he continued their kiss. She caressed his thighs and moaned into his mouth. He slid one hand around and down her back to massage her ass in the same rhythm as he squeezed her right breast. She took his now very hard cock in her hand and slowly began to stroke it. To show his gratitude of her attention, he bent to take her right nipple into his mouth, sucking it roughly then licking it gently. She sighed and caressed his back with her other hand. He moved his mouth to her other breast and repeated the sensual stimulation before plumbing her mouth with his tongue again._

_This time when the kiss ended, she pushed her panties down off her hips. He looked down and watched as she lowered them further. She moved to her back and took them off completely. She placed her feet on the mattress with her knees up. _

_He glanced down her body and back up again. She was smiling up at him. He placed a hand on her left knee, the closest to where he was kneeling, but she swung her legs away from him with a mischievous little giggle. He narrowed his eyes at her and she laughed even more._

_He leaned across her to kiss the right side of her neck. While she was so blissfully distracted, he snuck a hand between her thighs. She giggled and pushed him back. She rolled to her side to face his groin, stroked him a few times, then began to suck him again. She made sure to get it really wet this time. Leon groaned and stroked her hair as her head moved slowly back and forth. She applied more suction, causing his breath to catch. He bent to glide a hand down between her legs again, this time claiming the prize he sought. He stroked her slit a few times until she closed her thighs on his hand. He extricated it and went back to just running his fingers through her silken locks._

_Claire moved to her knees again, and turned to face away from him. He caressed her hips, and then leaned down to kiss her backside. He got back up on his knees and marveled at the sight of naked Claire half bent over in front of him. He pushed her long hair over the front of her shoulders so it wouldn't block his view of her body. He then ran his hands down her back. He grabbed her rear under both cheeks and squeezed. She moaned and leaned up on her knees to press her back against his chest. He kissed her left shoulder, still kneading her ass. She moved her torso away, teasing him by bending over again. He licked the fingertips of his right hand and stroked his cock. He then used that hand to rub her sex, stimulating her clit. He moaned when he found her wet and ready for him. _

_He pushed on her spine, coaxing her onto her hands and knees with her back arched. He sighed and moved into position behind her. He stroked himself a few more times, placed the head of his cock at her entrance, and slowly pushed forward. They both sighed in relief as he eased his hips forward and she moved hers back just as unhurriedly, impaling herself on his cock._

_He put both hands on her waist and used his grip to slowly move her hips back and forth to meet his gentle thrusts._

"_Does it hurt this time, Sweetheart?"_

"_No," she whispered over her right shoulder. "It just feels good."_

_He lifted his left knee, planting his foot on the mattress, and leaned over her right shoulder to kiss her. He leaned back up, caressed her hips, and went back to work, a little faster this time. _

_When Claire lowered her head onto her arms, moaning softly under her breath, Leon moved his left arm around his back to get an unobstructed view of her round, perfect ass, lifted so enticingly into the air. Turned on by the sight, he moved his hips faster and a little harder against her. She felt so amazing to him, tight and wet and warm. He moved to balance on his right fist pressed into the mattress, and thrust into her with more force. His jaw dropped open and he moaned a little louder at the increased stimulation he'd achieved. The deep sound made her shiver, and she moaned a quiet reply._

_Leon lifted himself back to an upright position then moved his hand back onto her lower back where he balanced himself with both arms. He then sped up his thrusting, causing Claire to moan loudly this time. He hissed through his teeth in response._

_He continued to take her from behind, but was again unhappy with the position he was in. He got up onto both feet and stabilized himself by grabbing the top of her ass with both hands, and then pounded her deeper. Claire uttered a little shriek and gripped the edge of the mattress. _

_They both moaned almost continuously as he thrust into her over and over. When she was able to handle it, she released her grip on the mattress edge and got up onto her hands again, arching her back in a way that made Leon moan even louder and quicken his pace. She cried out brokenly, looking over her shoulder to stare into his eyes so he could see how much pleasure he gave her. He gasped at the sight of so much passion in her features, and bent to kiss her before sitting back on his haunches and grabbing her hips. He leaned back and drove himself in and out of her at a rapid pace. She breathed his name and gripped the edge of the bed again, this time so hard that her knuckles turned white. _

"_Ohhhhh!" she moaned, her voice now at double the volume it had been at a moment before. He groaned and reached under her to fondle her large breasts. He then gripped them and used them to pull her up onto her knees. He pressed her tightly back against him and she moved her hands back to grip his thighs. He never broke rhythm._

_He pressed his face into her hair, breathing in the scent of wildflower shampoo. The feel of his warm breath on her skin had her body trembling again. She turned to face him and accepted his kiss. She then moved forward, letting him drop out of her tight orifice. _

_She turned slowly on her hands and knees, and laid down on her back. She lifted one shapely leg and moved it around to the other side of him. He caressed both legs and pushed them apart moving to kneel closer to her between them. He placed his hands under her legs and pulled her forward by her thighs. She put her hands behind her head and smiled up at him in anticipation. He stroked himself and entered her again. The renewed sensations of ecstasy rushed through them both, and they simultaneously threw their heads back and moaned._

_Leon picked up a fast pace of thrusting almost immediately. Claire gripped her hair and lifted her head so she could watch him gliding in and out of her. Leon focused on the gentle bouncing of her heavy breasts. _

_They tried to stay focused on each other as Leon grabbed her ankles and continued to plow away at her, but the ripples of pleasure kept forcing them to tilt back their heads and yell. None of the four girls Leon had fucked in the past __**ever **__felt this tight, this wet, this . . . indescribable. _

_Claire couldn't believe that she'd wasted so much time with just bringing herself off when everything Leon did to her felt a million times better than masturbation. As she finished that thought, he tilted his hips and hit her G spot particularly hard, as if to prove her point. She gripped his thighs and stared at him, her eyes and mouth wide open. Why did she wait so long to have sex? Then again, it probably wouldn't have been the same with anyone else but this amazing man she'd come to adore._

_They moaned louder and louder as Leon moved faster and deeper inside her. He released her ankles and leaned back, stabilizing himself on his palms. He began thrusting even harder, watching enthralled as her pussy swallowed him over and over. _

_She lifted her legs into the air and pointed her toes as the first waves of orgasm struck her all at once. She pressed her lips together to suppress a scream, but when he sped up again, her mouth fell open and she let out a hoarse cry._

_He felt her erratic clenching and moaned almost as loudly as she had. He was right there with her throughout the build up to her climax, and when she dropped her head back onto the mattress and shivered through her first orgasm of the night, he bit out a curse and released a bit of pre-cum. _

_He moved to lean over her and kissed her deeply, slowing his penetration, but not decreasing its depth. He grinded himself into her sex, the muscles in his backside contracting with each plunge. She ran her fingers down his spine and squeezed his rear every time he pressed her pelvis into the mattress. She loved the feel of his muscular cheeks in her hands. The man had a perfect ass. Meanwhile, his assault on her lips did not cease as he delved his tongue in and out to the rhythm of the movement of his hips. _

_Once he had guided her down from her pinnacle, he secured himself on his knees, lifted his hips and started to pound her hard and fast again. Up and down went his hips, and in and out went his cock as she gripped his ass hard, giving it the occasional sound smack. He kissed her every time she struck him._

_Her pleasure increased back to near orgasmic proportions pretty rapidly. She started to cry out again, so Leon slowed his thrusting and leaned down to kiss her more gently. He would lose it if she came again so soon, and he wasn't done with her yet. _

_He got up onto his knees and leaned back on his hands again. His thrusts became quicker, but he held back the force of his penetrations. She sighed and shuddered as the tickle in her clit slowly dissipated. Satisfied that she wouldn't cum yet, he moved to lie on top of her again so he could keep kissing her. _

_This continued for several minutes, with Leon leaning back and gently easing in and out of her every time she approached another release. Sweat poured off his body and dripped down onto hers from the effort he was putting into simultaneously pleasing her and holding back his own release. _

_When his left shoulder started to burn with the effort of holding himself up above her, he slowed to a halt then slowly pulled out of her. _

"_What's the matter, Baby?" she sighed._

"_Nothing. Shoulder's acting up."_

"_Wanna stop?"_

"_Oh, no. You're not getting off __**that **__easy. Just let me get comfortable."_

_She smiled and ran her fingers up and down his left arm, hoping that the sensation would send relief up into his wound. He pushed her onto her side facing away from him and got onto his right side behind her. He placed the head of his penis against her sex and pushed into her. She moaned and lifted her leg to make his job easier. To reward her, he moved his hips back, and then forward, penetrating her deeper this time. _

_He grabbed her calf, holding her leg up. He then raised his own leg trying to find a position that would help him take her faster, harder, and deeper. Taking a pointer from his example, she held his leg up for him, too. Then she moved to her back, placed her other leg over his bottom one to help ground him so he could fuck her how he liked. She absently thought that they must look like an advertisement for the XXX version of the game of Twister._

_As he thrust into her with a lot less difficulty, Claire reached down to rub her fingers over both his sacque and her clit. Her own juices coated her fingers and helped her to glide her hand back and forth across the meeting of their sex. She looked at Leon to gauge his reaction to her attentions. He looked like he was close to cumming, but she wasn't ready to stop yet. So, she asked him if he would let her go down on him again. He nodded and pulled out of her, settling his head and shoulders against the couch again. _

_She rolled over to face him and closed her lips around his glans. She had never tasted herself before. It was a strange sweet, tangy flavor that she didn't find at all unpleasant. She wondered if he would like it, too._

_As she sucked him as deep as she could without gagging, she cupped his balls and ran her leg up and down one of his. She was happy to hear his moans get quieter and his breathing relax. Once he had calmed down considerably, he started to run his fingers through her hair, as well as up and down her back._

_Second wind obtained, Leon lifted Claire's head away from his cock. He groaned as he watched her lick her lips clean of her own essence. He pushed her back onto her side, settled his hips behind her, and slid himself back into her tight heat. He put his leg on top of both of hers and fucked her as hard as he could. She screamed in time with his thrusts and cried out his name. He growled and kissed her, grateful for the stroke to his ego._

_Like a man possessed, he kept fucking her until she felt the first stirrings of release in the pit of her stomach again. She could feel that coil at her nexus winding tightly again, ready to burst at any moment in an explosion of white hot pleasure._

_When her inner muscles clenched him more rapidly, he moved his leg off of hers and grabbed her top leg, pushing it toward her until it was on her chest. She moved to her back once more and placed her other leg over his, keeping his position stable again. He thanked her by pushing even deeper inside her. Now at an equal state of arousal, they both knew this wasn't going to last much longer. _

_Claire caressed his chest and asked him to finish her from behind. Again, he could only nod as he was still panting breathlessly. He pulled out and they got into position to do it doggy-style again. He dug his fingers into one of her ass cheeks as he positioned himself at her opening. He entered her completely with one, smooth thrust and pounded her faster than before. His hips felt like they were moving of their own accord as he sought both their completions with all his remaining strength. He gripped her ass only with his right hand, letting his left arm dangle free so he wouldn't cause it to hurt again. He tilted his head back and waited for the inevitable._

_Claire groaned, a sound that was bestial to both their ears. She fisted the sheet with both hands pushing her hips back to meet him thrust for thrust, wanting it, needing it, and . . . there it was. _

_She came harder than she ever had in her life. _

_Leon leaned down and kissed her briefly, but he didn't linger at her lips. He leaned back up to finish. He was so close. So very close. Her orgasm had kick started the beginnings of his own. He slapped her ass hard as he felt his scrotum tighten._

_A few thrusts and Claire's elated moans were all he needed to get there. He stopped thrusting abruptly, voiced one loud, prolonged moan, and thrust into her three times, hard and deep, crying out on each thrust. His semen shot onto her cervix over and over. She cried out and came a third time. Ignoring how it hurt his shoulder, he gripped her hair and thrust twice more before releasing one last shuddering, strangled moan. _

_Once his body was back under his control, Leon moved his hips slowly, back and forth, not yet ready to pull out of his lover, but knowing he'd soon be too soft to keep it up. When that moment came, he let his cock slide out of Claire's sex. His flaccid manhood plopped wetly against his thigh. He leaned forward to kiss her cheek, and then moved back, bent down to face her sex from behind, and ran his tongue over her clit. _

_That answered her question about how he felt about her flavor. When he licked it again, she giggled and dropped onto her belly, away from his oral assault. She was too hypersensitive to appreciate it right then, but she was definitely going to hit him up for some more mouth loving at another time._

_He chuckled and decided to give the teasing a rest. He grabbed her waist and pulled her up to lean against him, her back pressed tightly to his chest again. He kissed her lips, adoringly. He broke the kiss and moved her slightly forward so he could gaze down at her ass. It was perfection, glistening with the sweat from their combined efforts to reach their climax. He squeezed her firm flesh, then slid his fingers under her to toy with her wetness. _

_She sighed and sat back on her ankles. He leaned around her and balanced on his right fist. She allowed him to kiss her deeply again. She sighed and stroked his arm, coaxing his hand back down between her legs. He obeyed her silent request and slid two fingers into her heat. She shivered and gripped his arm tightly, delving her tongue between his lips, forcing his own back to dominate their kiss._

_When they finally broke the kiss, he caressed her face, her back, and finally her hair, kissing the top of her head. She hugged him tightly. He took a deep breath and released it against her crown. She leaned back and smiled into his eyes. "God, Leon. You are such a fantastic lover."_

_He smirked with male pride, but returned the compliment. "So are you."_

_She chuckled. "Hardly. I'm just still virgin-tight, so you can't help but like it. If I keep taking that monster inside me though, that's not gonna last very long."_

_He laughed breathlessly. "My ego thanks you."_

"_He's quite welcome." She kissed him lightly._

_He returned the peck and moved to stand up on the bed. "We need a shower."_

_She slapped his ass as he walked off the bed to the carpeted floor. "Especially you, Sweaty."_

_He chuckled and reached back to pull her to her feet. She held his hand daintily as she stepped down off the bed, as if they were a couple in the 18th century and he was helping her down from their carriage. "My gratitude, kind sir."_

"_My pleasure, dear lady."_

_She giggled and hugged him around his waist, sighing blissfully. "You're a pretty awesome catch, Beanpole."_

"_Likewise, Tadpole."_

_He ran to the bathroom as she tried to smack his good arm. She took off after him, but he shut the door in her face._

"_I'm not short!" she shouted. "You're just freakishly tall!"_

"_Stop yelling," he answered through the door. "You'll wake Sherry."_

"_Oh, please!" she laughed. "I couldn't do that with a bazooka!"_

_He smiled and opened the door a crack. "If you hit me again, I'll have to arrest you for domestic violence."_

_She smirked. "Oooo. Will you use handcuffs?"_

_He chuckled and opened the door to let her in. "You sure know how to break a man down, Claire."_

_She sauntered past him and stroked his cheek stubble. "Yeah. It's a gift."_

* * *

Chris watched Leon's face light up as he told him almost nothing about the second time he had made love to Claire. All he said was, '_We did it on the pull out couch in our hotel suite a week after Raccoon City. Sherry was sleeping like the dead in the next room, so we didn't have to worry about making her uncomfortable.' _Then he silently drifted into LaLa Land with that goofy grin plastered across his mug.

Chris let that continue for over two minutes before he decided that enough was enough. He snapped his fingers in front of Leon's face. "Earth to Rookie."

Leon blinked rapidly, and turned to face Chris. "Oh, sorry. Got caught up in the memories."

"S'okay. I really don't want to know anymore than you already told me about what happened. I just want to know if she was okay with it."

"Yeah."

"Did you hurt her?"

"You mean because it was her second time?" Chris nodded. "No. She was fine."

"Good. Then I have no complaints."

Leon smiled. "Then I shouldn't prepare to duck?"

"Not at present."

"How generous of you."

"Yeah. I thought so, too." Both men chuckled. "So, you were officially an item then, huh?"

Leon nodded. "Yup. She was my 'Baby'."

"So, what ended it?"

Leon's smile changed to a look of exhaustion. He didn't want to answer that, but he assumed Chris would misinterpret any attempts he made at stalling. He was tired of getting hit in the fucking face, so he decided to be honest.

"You did."

Chris looked surprised. "Me?"

"Yeah."

"How the hell is it _my _fault? I wasn't even there."

"That's precisely what the problem was. She still didn't know where you were other than you had gone to Paris to hit up the main Umbrella offices. She wanted to go find you, still determined to insure your safety. She told me so when we went to bed that night. She said she wanted to take some of my blackjack winnings and fly to France to look for you. I told her I didn't want her going alone to enter an Umbrella facility without me. We ended up having our first real fight over it. I hated that we went to bed angry on the same night that she became my girlfriend."

"Well, why didn't you just come with her if you were so worried?"

Leon frowned, not at Chris, but at the memory of what happened the next day.

"She never gave me the chance. She took the money she needed and left that same night. She hotwired another car and took off for the Atlantic City airport. She left a note saying that I could never understand how she felt about you because I still had all my family. She said that when you guys lost your parents, you became all each other had. She said she _had _to know that you were okay. She said she was sorry it had to be that way and she hoped in time I would understand. She left a separate note for Sherry. I gave it to her, and she read it. She cried all day, and wouldn't take off Claire's vest. I never asked her what her letter said."

Chris felt terrible to have been an unknowing part of their first fight and separation. "I'm sorry, Leon."

"Why are _you _sorry? You didn't do anything."

"That's exactly right. I didn't do anything. When the S.T.A.R.S. fell, I didn't call Claire. I just took off on my fucking crusade, not sparing a thought for the people I was leaving behind. Not Jill, not Claire, not Barry. My only sister, and she would have never been in that mess if I had just called her and told her to stay away.

Leon smiled. "Claire would be alive, but Sherry and I would be dead if you'd done that. She saved my life, too back in Raccoon. I don't regret that she came there. Even if I'd survived, I would have never met her. It was all worth it for us to be together."

Chris smiled. "You really love her, don't you?"

"With all my heart."

Chris slapped Leon on the back companionably before continuing his questioning. "Then I ask you again, why didn't you go after her? You knew where she was going. You could have followed her."

"Sure. And what was I supposed to do with Sherry?"

Chris shrugged. "I see your point."

"It would have been nice if Claire had seen it."

"What did _she _think you should do with Sherry?"

"Oh, she thought that I should stay behind and watch her. I wanted her to wait another week until my arm was better and I'd earned a little more money. I knew my aim would be for shit with a busted shoulder. We needed weapons if we were gonna storm the gates of an Umbrella facility. And I wanted to take Sherry to my godparents' house in Ohio. There was no paper trail leading from me to them, so I knew she'd be safe there. Claire said she couldn't wait because in a week, you could be dead."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Such drama over nothing. I was fine. I was in hiding, planning to raid the same facility she went into." Leon nodded. "So, what did you do?"

"I asked her to sleep on it and to talk about it with me in the morning. We'd had a beautiful night, and I didn't want to ruin it by going to bed angry with each other. She told me it was too late to prevent that, rolled over so her back was to me, and I _thought_ she went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, she was gone and there was a sealed envelope with my name on the back on her pillow. Sherry's envelope was on the coffee table."

Chris sighed. "Claire's such a damn hothead. Sorry she hurt you like that."

"I wasn't hurt, I was pissed. Mostly for Sherry. That kid worshipped the ground Claire walked on. Everyday that Claire didn't come back she would ask me if Claire was gonna die. I tried my best to comfort her, but I wasn't Claire. Claire was her hero, and always will be."

Chris smiled. "Do I detect a hint of jealousy?"

Leon smirked. "Maybe just a little. I love that kid, you know? It hurts a little to be her second favorite adoptive parent."

"Not true."

"It is true."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Stop acting like your hairstyle."

Leon chuckled. "Stop calling me an emo, Steroids."

Chris barked a loud laugh. "Touché, Rookie. So what happened next?"

"Three days after Claire left, Sherry and I were captured by the government. They arrested me under the pretense of my card counting in the casinos being a federal offense, but it wasn't long before I discovered that the real reason I'd been taken into custody was to be offered a job."

"And Sherry?"

"She was placed into protective custody."

"I see. So I guess you were out of the mix until Claire emailed you."

"Correct. Sherry and I were held in custody together at first, then I went into training. When I had time off, I spent it with Sherry." Leon opened another beer. He was starting to really feel the alcohol now. Chris looked like he could put away another case or two without batting an eye. Leon sighed. At least he was relaxed while having to relive painful memories of his conflicts with both Sherry _and _Claire. "Your sister emailed me with her location and yours, as well as the message that you were being watched by Umbrella."

"Right. And you called me in Paris, and told me what happened to her."

"And then you threatened to kill me."

Chris bust out laughing at the memory. "No, I threatened to _maim _you. Big difference."

"Uh huh. I told you I was Claire's friend _and _I told you the things she told me about your past that only the two of you would know."

"And I believed you."

"Yeah, after like half an hour of arguing, threats, and generally being a dick."

Chris chuckled. "Yeah. Well, I kind of believed you before that. I finally remembered your name as the new guy that was supposed to join the force. I remembered you because you were a college grad. Weren't too many of those on the RPD force. Plus, Rebecca had gone all teen groupie over your photo."

Leon chuckled. "She did? Remind me to tease her about it the next time I see her."

"Billy will kick your ass."

"Not if I tell him my mission tactical strategy was modeled after him."

Chris's brows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Mullet warfare, remember?"

Chris sputtered his beer, coughing and laughing. When he finally got his breathing to rights, he said, "You're trying to kill me, man!"

"Sorry," Leon chuckled.

"No, that was funny. Don't apologize." He gulped his beer. "Woo! That was a good one!" He got his chuckles under control, and then continued. "Now then, after I got the info from you, you told me to go ahead to Rockfort and you would join me. Why didn't you do that?"

"I tried."

"I didn't ask if you tried, I asked why you broke your word."

Leon frowned. "I didn't break my word. I took a beating behind that!"

"What beating?"

"I was being trained by an elite government program to be the best of the best. But I was also a prisoner. I couldn't just leave. I had to escape. I tried three times in one day. I got caught every time. Finally, I was taken before my commanding officer, Jack Krauser. You remember him, right? From the Kennedy Report?"

Chris frowned. "Yeah, I remember that punk bitch. Kidnapping a little teenager from school. But you kicked his ass, didn't you?"

"Blew him away."

"Good." Chris looked at Leon's right cheek. "Claire was pissed about that scar. It was a little too close to being a mortal wound for her peace of mind. If you hadn't killed him, she would have."

Leon smirked. "Not so much when she first saw it."

"Harvardville?"

"Yeah. Anyway, Krauser had me held by two men and beaten until I was unconscious. I spent a week in the infirmary."

Chris frowned. If Leon or Claire hadn't killed Krauser, he would have been next in line. "Harvardville was five years after Rockfort Island and Antarctica. I didn't get the impression that you and Claire spent too much time together during those years."

Leon closed his eyes, trying not to get overwhelmed by the pain that resurfaced with those memories. "We didn't."

Chris watched his friend fight the despair his memories produced. He shook his head and sighed. "I don't get it, Leon. Claire was all googly-eyed over the prospect of seeing you again when I told her you sent me to rescue her, although there was an undertone of sadness that I didn't get at the time. I'm guessing now that I've heard the whole story that it was probably due to guilt over the way she'd ditched you."

"You're probably right. I got the same feeling when I saw her again."

"Well, seeing as how she was all 'Leon this' and 'Leon that', I asked her outright if something sexual was going on between you."

Leon quirked a blond brow, not knowing what to expect from his unpredictable sweetheart. "What did she say?"

"She said I should get my filthy mind out of the gutter, and that even if my suspicions _had _been true, it was none of my fucking business."

Leon chuckled. "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

"Okay, I don't wanna hear about my sister's pants being on fire if it's coming from you." Leon smirked and shook his head in amusement. Chris took a drag off his beer, staring at his comrade-in-arms all the while. Finally, he tossed his hand up in frustration. "Jesus, man! What the hell happened between you two? I mean, for Claire to lie to me about your relationship, you _must _have meant a lot to her. And I can tell from what you've said so far that she meant the world to you, too. How could it end up that way, with you two not hardly speaking for like half a decade? I mean, I know the government kept you busy. After all, we kept running into each other on outbreaks, when BSAA and the Secret Service did joint missions."

Leon raised his beer. "That's how we became bros." Chris smiled and clinked his can with his friend's.

"Right. And you always asked me how Claire was and I would tell you to visit her, and you'd say when you had the time. Then I'd ask Claire when she last saw you, and she'd say she hadn't. I'd ask when she last _talked _to you, and she'd still say she hadn't. But knowing you like I do now, Leon, I've never known a more loyal man. And Claire is the same way. I just don't get why you'd let yourselves drift apart like that."

"Oh, there was no drifting. We ended it quite abruptly."

Chris's face fell. "Really?"

"Yeah. It was pretty bad."

"What happened?"

"We had another fight. Big one this time."

Chris looked guilty again. "God, it wasn't over me again, was it?"

"Nah," Leon reassured his friend. "It wasn't about you. It was about Sherry."

Chris sighed and nodded. He finally understood. "When was this?" he asked gently.

"Few hours after the third time we had sex."

"Damn . . . do _you two _ever blow hot and cold." Leon smiled, but it never quite reached his eyes. "Wanna unload some more baggage?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Okay. When did you get to see her after Antarctica?"

"Four months later."

"Why so long?"

"I had to finish training. She had emailed me that you were both safe. I told her I was glad. She said something bad had happened and she wanted to talk about it, but not on-line so she wanted me to come see her as soon as possible."

"Steve?"

"Yeah. Although, I didn't find out about him until the argument."

"Why don't you start from the beginning."

Leon took a swig of beer. "Okay. I asked Krauser after reading Claire's email when I could have leave. He said not until the end of my training, and if I tried to leave AWOL again, I wouldn't get it so easy. I'd simply be shot on sight." Chris frowned. "You guys came to see me that time, but she didn't want to talk in a government facility. I did as I was told. I didn't try to escape again, and earned myself a weekend pass in late March. The weather had just started to warm up in Maryland, so I bought a new jeep with my government benefits, and drove from D.C. to her house. I didn't tell her I was coming." He smiled fondly. "I wanted to surprise her."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Sorry, I know I took a liberty with having Leon and Sherry watch C.S.I. when the show didn't premiere until fall of 2000, but I happen to love that show myself, so please forgive.


	4. Chapter 3: Reunited and It Feels So Good

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

**Author's Notes: **Thank you to everyone who reviewed again, good or bad. It's another long lemon. That's just how I roll. I believe in details. I don't like telling all the details of the most benign conversations and then summarize an hour of lovemaking in one paragraph. I like detail in all my writing. So, I hope you all like the long lemons.

Then again, if you don't like long lemons, I've probably already lost you anyway.

~ Tani

* * *

**CHAPTER 3: Reunited and It Feels So Good **

_**Cumberland, Maryland: a quaint suburban household in the East Side neighborhood **_

"_Just a minute!"_

_Claire hurried to the front door. She'd been putting clothes in the dryer when the doorbell rang, so she had to run up the stairs._

"_I said I'd be right there!" she yelled when the bell rang again. _

_She unlocked the door and opened it. The person standing there was the last person she expected to see. She stared him in the eyes at first, then looked down the length of him and back up again. Slowly, a smile began to take form on her face._

"_Hi, Leon," she said with a sigh._

"_Hi, Claire." He didn't smile in return, but his intense gaze never left hers._

_She was at a loss for words for a while. Finally, she remembered he was still standing on her front steps. "Uh . . . I'm sorry. Won't you come in? Oh, but please take your shoes off in the entryway. My carpets are new."_

_He nodded and walked in. She watched him as he passed her then bent to remove his shoes and socks. She smiled behind him. He was more muscular, and his skin was tanner. His new physique was perfectly defined in the simple dark blue T-shirt and black athletic pants he was wearing. But these were not the biggest changes. _

"_Your hair's gone."_

_For the first time since seeing her again, he smiled at her. "Military. They made me cut it. Believe it or not, it's actually longer than it was."_

_She smiled in return, staring up at his short hair. "I like it . . . but I liked your other hairstyle better." _

_He nodded. "So did I. It's growing back pretty fast, so I'll be back to normal pretty soon." _

"_You were never normal," she joked. _

_He smiled and nodded. "How've you been?"_

"_Fine. You?"_

"_Busy."_

"_I see." She stared up at him in silence for a while. Finally, she addressed the smaller of the two elephants in the room. "Where's Sherry?"_

"_Safe. I'll take you to see her today if you're not too busy."_

_She smiled. "Where is she?"_

"_The capitol. In protective custody."_

"_That's a relief."_

_The other, larger elephant in the room was ignored. Neither of them spoke about why he had been no-contact for a third of a year or why she had left. Neither spoke of the argument that comprised the last words they'd spoken to each other in person more than four months prior. When she had visited him at the training facility with Chris after her brother rescued her from Antarctica, she had been tongue tied. She froze when she'd seen him then. So ashamed of how she'd left, she was barely able to look at him. _

_The other times they'd visited, the Redfields weren't allowed to see him. But he knew they were there, and he drew strength from knowing they were out there, waiting for him. Even with how bad that argument had been, Claire's support by visiting him, despite not being guaranteed to see him, was more important than the hard words they'd exchanged._

_And now, standing in her home, looking into her eyes, the argument was once again forgotten the moment he felt her presence. Four months of pain, of loss, of thinking she didn't want him anymore. Seeing her again had erased it all for the moment. It's not that the feelings were gone. They just weren't important right then. _

_He looked down at her body. She had on a tight little pale lavender T-shirt and a white miniskirt, demure by Claire standards. He looked up at her face again. Her hair was bright red. It had grown out as a shiny rich scarlet hue. He'd really wanted to see her with her natural color. She had cut the dyed part off in his absence. Her hair was also a lot shorter than he remembered, only just below shoulder length, but it was still long enough to look like it was inviting him to run his fingers through her customary ponytail. He looked her up and down one more time. She was barefoot like him. For some reason, that really turned him on._

"_It's good to see you again, Claire," he muttered more to her chest than her face._

_Without a word, she locked the door and put the chain on. She then pressed her back to the door and smirked at him. "It's good to see you, too," she replied to his crotch. They both looked up simultaneously after thoroughly checking each other out._

_She walked closer to him and stopped once she was toe-to-toe with him. They stared into each other's eyes for almost a full minute._

_Neither knew who reached for the other first. All they knew was suddenly, they were pressed tightly together, tongues at war. They both groaned into each other's mouths as they crushed their lips together. _

_They slowed the kiss after a while, their lips and tongues working in a symphony that almost perfectly mimicked their prior lovemaking. Their arms found their way around each other's backs and shoulders. They caressed each other, trying to express how much their separation had affected them, how much they'd missed each other. It was beautiful. It was gentle. _

_It was short-lived._

_Without warning, Claire's ponytail holder was suddenly gone, and her skirt was up around her waist. Her arms were wrapped around his neck. She brought her hands around to caress his neck and cheeks. _

_He caressed her cheeks too, just not the ones on her face. _

_Leon lifted her shirt up over her head and tossed it to the side. She ran her fingers under the bottom edge of his T-shirt then slid them down to untie the front of his sports pants._

_He slid his fingertips along the edge of the top of her skirt looking for the fastener. It wasn't an easy task, considering that Claire had worked her hand under the waistband of his pants, redirecting the blood flow away from his brain. He moaned against her lips as she stroked him. _

_He eventually found the little metal tab under the edge of her skirt on the left side, and began blindly trying to undo it. Finally, he and Claire chuckled as he gave up trying to be suave and just bent over her hip to look at the tricky clothing fastener. Tricky, at least, to a man whose thinking brain was quickly losing blood to his 'lower brain'._

_Finally, he got the fastener loose, and unwrapped her skirt. A second button still secured it to her body, just under her naval. She placed her hands on his shoulders and kneaded his muscles to relax him so the button wouldn't give him the same trouble as the fastener. In the meantime, he undid her skirt, then allowed it to drop to the floor. _

"_I missed you, Claire."_

_She kissed him one more time, then pulled his pants and boxers down in one motion. "I missed you, too." She followed his clothes to the floor and, without another word, took his length into her mouth._

_He ran a gentle hand through her hair, pushing it aside so he could see her work. He caressed her hair over and over, but never let it fall in front of that gorgeous face. _

_She took as much of him as she could into her mouth, her eyes closed with the pleasure of giving pleasure to him. "You look so beautiful doing that, Babe." She chuckled around his cock at the rather unconventional compliment._

_When he couldn't take it anymore, Leon pulled Claire to her feet and kissed her again. She wrapped her hands around his shoulders, running her fingers through the hair at his nape. He undid her bra and slid it forward by the straps, just as he had in the Atlantic Palace suite. She pulled her arms back from his shoulders to help him take it off, just as __**she **__had done that night. He tossed the bra on the floor, kissed her for another moment, then got onto his knees. Being so much taller than she was, this put him in line with her breasts, not her groin. That was just fine by him. _

_He slid his tongue over her left nipple. It puckered instantly. She held her breast up as an offering for him. He caressed the small of her back as he suckled her gently. She moaned. Once she was whimpering with need, he switched to suck on the right breast. She rubbed his shoulders to share the pleasure, then she pulled his shirt off and tossed it onto the growing pile of clothes. He moved away from her breast only long enough to let the shirt pass over his head._

_He went immediately back to licking her nipple, while staring her in the eyes. Then he released her breast and pulled down her panties. She stepped out of them with a little smirk. Finally, gratefully, they were both naked._

_Leon turned Claire to the side and looked up and down her body. He kissed her abdomen and caressed her pelvis, quickly working his hand between her legs. She gasped as he pressed his fingers to her sex and began to rub up and down while kissing her stomach and teasing her naval with his tongue. He leaned up to kiss her breasts again, then once more took the right one into his mouth. He ran his tongue in lazy circles around the peak of her mound as he slid a finger in and out of her. Her knees buckled a few times, as she was so overcome with the feeling of him touching her after so much time apart. He held her securely up on her feet._

_She ran her fingers through his short hair, then used it to yank his head back to her left breast. He licked her little rose and taupe-colored nubbin, and then sucked it hard, while his index finger plunged deep inside her. "God, I love your tits, Baby," he muttered against her breast._

_She threw her head back and sighed. He turned her to put her back to him, and she got down to the floor on her knees, sliding her body down his as she knelt. "Oh, Leon. I need you so bad," she sighed. _

_She kept one knee on the floor, but balanced up on her other foot, her legs far apart, while she was practically sitting in her much taller lover's lap. He wasted no time sliding his fingers back down her torso to tease her. _

_She lifted her arms to pull his head to face her over her left shoulder. She leaned back and kissed him. He ran his free hand up to cup her right breast as he fondled her clit with his left hand and fondled her mouth with his tongue. _

_He slowly eased his middle finger inside her. She groaned against his lips, then grabbed a hold of his shaft and stroked it slowly. When he pushed his digit deeper into her heat, she lifted her hips and gyrated into his hand._

_They continued to pleasure each other while kissing passionately. Claire broke the kiss first, with a breathy moan. Leon cupped both breasts and rolled her nipples between his fingers. She leaned forward, getting to her hands and knees, panting. Instead of accepting her obvious invitation to take her from behind, Leon decided that their long separation deserved their passion being raised by a slow boil, rather than plunging right into molten fire. More foreplay was in order. Because when he was done with Claire she wasn't going to be able to walk straight. 'It's been way too long,' he thought with a sly grin. He got up from the floor and went to her living room area. He sat on the loveseat. _

"_Want me to go down on you some more?" she asked him breathlessly. He nodded. _

_She crawled over to him and bent her head over his lap. He clutched at her hair as she sank her mouth down onto him. She gave him a few quick bobs of her head then slowed to a more sensual pace._

_She gave him oral sex for another minute, then lifted her head a bit to gauge his reaction._

"_No, don't stop," he whispered._

_She smiled and continued to pleasure him. "You enjoying?" she mumbled around his glans._

"_Mm hm . . . very much so," he whispered back._

_She gazed up at his eyes a few times, enjoying the sight of him lost to his passion. Unable to stand it anymore, she lifted her head and leaned in to kiss him. While their lips were pressed together, she climbed up into his lap, straddling his thighs with her own. He slid his hands under her and pulled her up his chest, still not ready to 'get to the good part'. Not that it wasn't __**all **__good. "Come get a mustache ride," he ordered. _

"_You don't have a mustache anymore."_

"_Semantics. Now give me that hot little honey pot. I've been starving for it."_

_She obeyed immediately, having been extremely curious about what it would feel like to receive pleasure from him this way. She inched the rest of the way up his torso as he scooted himself down. Once her sex was hovering above his mouth, he let his tongue go to work._

"_Shit!" she whispered in a hiss._

_He gripped her hips as he licked her opening and teased her clit. She moved her pelvis and gripped the top of the loveseat. He grabbed her rear end, helping her to move. After a moment of this, he took one hand off her firm ass to stroke his manhood, not wanting to risk going soft on her._

_Claire stared down at the sight of his handsome face between her thighs. She was sure a sexier view didn't exist. She tossed her head back and cried out as pleasurable vibrations rippled up from her clit to her nipples and back down again._

"_I'm cumming!" she cried desperately as a small orgasm rocked her world._

_Immediately after her body stopped trembling, Leon slipped out from under her, and stood to come up behind her. Claire turned to suckle him in gratitude of the first time he'd given her an orgasm with his mouth. She'd never received oral sex before, and he had definitely made her a fan. _

_She sucked him deeply a few times, then got off the couch to allow him to sit. She straddled his thighs again, but this time he held his cock up beneath her. He pulled her sex open with his fingers, gripping her rear with the other hand to ease her down. He held her in position, placed the head of his erection at her opening, then thrust up into her, moaning softly at finally being able to feel the tightness inside her. He wasted no time before increasing to a rapid rate of penetration._

"_Oh, God!" she screamed. She leaned forward to kiss him as they moved their hips up and down, pelvic bones crashing rhythmically as she rode him hard into the couch, taking total control of their lovemaking as she bounced up and down with such force, the cushions squeaked._

_They moaned together, in clipped broken little vocalizations, as Claire moved. Feeling his own release trying to make an appearance, Leon grabbed her ass to slow the movement of her thrusts. She got the hint, slowly grinding her sex against his groin, moaning continuously at the feel of him so deep inside her. When he released his hold on her, she started to thrust again, but this time much slower._

"_Unh," she whispered._

"_Ohhhhh," he replied._

"_Oh, God," she muttered under her breath._

"_You feel so good, Claire. I can feel you squeeze me, Baby. You're so tight. Have you been untouched since the last time we were together?" She nodded, smiling into his eyes. He returned her smile and kissed her lips. He was happy to know he was still the only man she'd ever let touch her so intimately._

_She sighed and picked up the pace, bouncing up and down faster again. For his part, Leon suckled her breasts. Claire mumbled a curse then lifted his head to kiss him. She leaned back to brace her palms on his thighs. She bounced even harder, her hair and breasts moving to her rhythm. But Leon never saw that. He was too fixated on the sight of his cock disappearing inside her over and over. He gripped her hips to help her up and down on him, slamming her down hard at the end of every thrust. He watched in awe as a faint blush colored her wet nether lips. He moaned at the sight. She moaned in reply._

_Their volume escalated with the force of their coupling. Claire tossed her hair back and hissed as the first signs of her next orgasm became evident. She whimpered and bit her lip as she came again. _

"_FUCK, Claire!" he yelled as she clamped down on him in the throes of her own ecstasy._

_When her climax was over, she slid off his cock and down to the floor, taking him into her mouth again. She was quickly realizing that she couldn't get enough of his cock in her mouth, especially when coated with her essence. _

_She eventually came up for air and muttered, "Hot." _

"_That you are, Sweetheart," he answered with a smirk._

_He lifted her head from his lap and helped her to stand, getting up as well. She moved to stand between him and the seat, kissed him softly, and then turned to bend over the loveseat. He moved to stand behind her. He placed his hands on the top of the chair on either side of her, then moved his legs far apart so that he'd get closer down to her height. He brought one hand back to stroke his cock a few times, then slid it back inside her._

"_Ohhh! Oh, God! Fucking yes, Leon! Do me hard!"_

_He sighed at the vulgar request. It was such a turn-on when she talked dirty. He didn't answer verbally, but he didn't disobey. He knew how much she loved it from the back._

_He gripped her hips, pulling her back forcefully onto his thrusting shaft. The rhythmic pounding and slapping sounds proof of the power he used to penetrate her._

_She cried out for him, over and over, while he sighed with bliss from time to time. And then . . ._

"_I'm cumming!" she announced through gritted teeth._

_He slid his hands under her and onto her breasts, kneading them so she'd feel it longer. He felt her clenching him tighter. He closed his eyes and sighed through his nostrils. She hadn't cum yet, but she was nearly there. He thrust faster and harder. _

"_OHHH! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! More! More!"_

_More wasn't a problem. He was nowhere near done with her. This was all he'd dreamt about while he was in training. He'd often woken up with boners during that time, having to sate himself with masturbating alone in the shower before dawn, stroking his cock to images of Claire in his mind. He'd endured the Claire-less blue balls for four long months, and he wasn't stopping until neither of them could move._

_He reached under her to stroke her clit, his way of giving her the 'more' stimulation she'd asked him for. Her voice went up an octave and she came hard. He stood upright, grabbed her waist, and slowly moved in and out of her, drawing out her climax until she saw spots dot her field of vision._

_Once he felt her erratic clenching calm down, he dug his toes into the plush carpet and sped up the movement of his hips again._

"_Oh, yeah," he whispered. _

"_Ooooo!"_

"_Let me eat your pussy again," he ordered softly. He pulled out and she turned around to lie on her back across the loveseat. He knelt on the floor in front of her and leaned down to tease her clit with his tongue._

"_Ohhh!"_

_He switched back and forth between sucking the fleshy little button hard and feathering his tongue across it._

"_Mmm. That's nice," she muttered. He flicked his tongue rapidly over her clit and she gasped out his name. "Let me fuck you some more," she moaned. He got up from the floor. She moved to let him sit again, then straddled his lap, this time facing forward. She impaled herself immediately and braced her hands on his thighs. "Oh, yes," she cried out. He moaned in reply. _

_She bounced up and down on him for less than a minute before he leaned up, grabbed her by her breasts, and dragged her back to lean against him. She cried out in surprise then moaned in ecstasy as he drove his tongue into her mouth. She leaned into his right shoulder out of habit of trying to protect his formerly injured left, then she put her left foot beside his hip. He picked her up under her rear to give himself room to move. He then lifted his hips with rapid deep thrusts._

_She reached behind his head to hold it in place while she invaded his mouth with her tongue. He slid his right arm under her back and around her side to grip her right breast. They stayed in that position for a while, the only movement being the thrusting of his hips and the movement of their tongues. Then he surprised her by slipping a hand down under her, pulling her legs farther apart, his fingers positioned at her nexus to toy with her clit. She accidentally bit his tongue as her body shook with amplified pleasure. He didn't even care. She felt too damn good for him to even notice the pain._

_She arched her back with her neck fully extended, moving her hips slowly to dampen her release. She'd lost count of how many times he'd made her cum now. She wasn't ready to stop, so she staved off the next orgasm. _

_He brought his hands back up to her breasts. He massaged them, then leaned down to suck on her right nipple. Claire grunted and whined. He was fucking up her efforts not to cum._

_He felt her trembling, so he laid off her breasts for the moment. Instead, he went back to pounding her, lifting his hips quickly again. She delved her tongue into his mouth and moaned._

_Leon smiled into the kiss then mumbled against her mouth. "I love you, Claire. You love me?" She just moaned. "Hm?" Again, she didn't answer. She just chuckled breathlessly. He could have kicked himself. 'I'm so fucking stupid,' he thought. He had spent four months expressing his love to Dream-Claire while whacking off in the shower. Dream-Claire had always answered in kind. It had become a habit, really. It never occurred to him that the real Claire might not feel the same as the Claire in his daydreams. He sighed as he realized that he might very well have just pushed her away by telling her too soon how he felt about her. He became distracted with his thoughts, unwittingly slowing his pace of penetration._

_Claire could feel the uncomfortable tension mounting between them, so she decided to distract him from the awkward moment in the nicest way she could think of. She lifted herself off him and got on the floor on her knees. She deep throated him, gagged, and then moved her head up and down, using her hand to pick up the slack. Overcome by how good it felt, he put one hand on top of the couch and lifted his hips then placed his other hand on the back of her head, guiding her. It didn't take him long to forget the embarrassment of the moment before, so he sat back down, pulling out of her mouth. _

_She leaned forward to kiss him while rapidly stroking his cock. He tossed a couch pillow onto the floor. She broke the kiss and sat down at his feet. Leon followed suit, facing towards her. The moment his butt hit the floor, she reached behind him and stole his pillow, placing it behind herself. _

"_My pillow!" she taunted playfully._

"_Whatever," he muttered._

_She thought he sounded annoyed, between her prior rejection of his earnest admission of love and her childish antics, so she reached up onto the sofa for another pillow. She took it in both hands and raised it up over his head. She lowered it behind him, pulling him forward by the pillow into an apologetic lip-lock. She then dropped it behind him to replace the one she took._

_She moved her legs on top of his outstretched ones. She scooted closer, and he helped by dragging her forward. She got up on her hands and raised her pelvis above his lap. _

_He licked the fingertips of his right hand, then rubbed her sex a few times before easing his cock back into her warmth. They used the leverage from her hands on the floor behind her and his hands on her ass to move her back and forth along his length. The slow, deep penetrations just left her wanting more. So, she reached behind his head and braced herself to pound away at him harder and faster. _

_She cried out hoarsely over and over. Finally, overwhelmed by the pleasure, she leaned in closer to kiss him, plumbing his mouth almost violently with her tongue. She pushed him back onto the floor, the pillow lost somewhere under his tall frame. He slid his hands down her back and onto her backside. He rubbed her sex with one index finger, and she shivered with curious delight as he teased the outside of her smaller orifice with the other forefinger. He renewed their kiss and lifted his hips off the floor to enter her. He pounded her from below, teasing the rim of her anus again, but when she started to shake, he stopped. She wasn't even close to ready for that, but it was good to know she'd responded positively to anal stimulation. Instead of teasing her ass anymore, he glided his palms up her torso and onto her shoulders. He massaged her muscles while fucking her good and proper. Her moaning increased, so he knew he was doing __**something **__right. However, when he felt his own sacque tightening, he slowed his rhythm considerably. Claire sighed and kissed him before lifting off his cock._

_She sat up on her knees and moved from above his lap, stumbling on her knees a bit. _

"_Whoa. That was graceful," she muttered sarcastically at her own expense. Leon just chuckled breathlessly and sucked half her left breast into his mouth. He licked her nipples in turn, stroking himself to stay hard, as she ran her fingers through his short crop of hair. She pecked his lips, then turned to straddle his chest this time, leaning forward over his torso. He grabbed her hips and pulled her pelvis towards his face. She lowered her mouth onto his cock and he lowered her sex onto his tongue._

_For five minutes, they fought for supremacy as the reigning ruler of oral sex. It ended in a draw, though neither combatant mourned their lack of victory._

_She scooted back, kissing her way up his abdomen, chest, and throat, until she was kneeling with his head between her knees. She bent forward to give him an upside-down kiss. He smiled against her lips and stroked her hair. She caressed his hair and face. _

"_Let me take you upstairs," he whispered. She kissed him again, lingeringly, then stood and helped him up. Her eyes fell on the scar on his left shoulder. It looked like it had healed well._

_Her thoughts were full of how he'd had to fend for himself and their ward with the injury . . . without her. She'd been worried about Chris, true, but the way she left things was selfish. She would have to make it up to him somehow._

_She led him to the stairs. When she was a few steps above him, he reached out to tease her slit. She giggled and told him to be patient. Once they reached the top few steps, he told her patience wasn't his strong suit and bent her over the upper landing and thrust back inside her._

_Claire's eyes widened as this particular angle caused him to jam into her G spot on every penetration. She began to shriek in time with his thrusts._

"_Oh, yes!"_

"_Oh, Claire."_

"_Leon!"_

"_Like how I feel inside you, Baby?"_

"_Yes! Fuck me! Fuck me harder!"_

_He doubled his speed and rubbed her breasts. He used the other hand to rub her sex. She trembled as she tried to keep herself from collapsing to the floor._

"_I feel you clenching, Babe . . . you close again?" _

_She nodded, unable to vocalize anything but moans as her orgasm began in the pit of her stomach. When she finally found her voice again, it was to tell him, "You made me cum, Sweetheart."_

"_I know. You're so wet and warm, Baby." _

"_You just watch. You'll see how wet I can get for you." She stood up and tried to walk up the last couple steps, but it was useless. Leon wouldn't stop thrusting. _

"_I love fucking you like this," he whispered against her ear._

_She sighed and dragged him into a deep kiss. Finally, she whispered that she loved fucking him, too, but her knees were beginning to hurt. The carpet on the stairs wasn't nearly as soft as the one downstairs. _

_He nodded and pulled out. They both stood and continued on to her bedroom as if their interlude on the stairs never occurred. _

_Leon sat on the side of Claire's full-sized bed. He was facing her closet, which had a full-length mirror on it. She sat on his lap, facing the mirror. They both watched enthralled for a while as she ground her ass against him. Finally, she lifted herself to her feet and he reached between her legs from the front so he could see his hand in the mirror putting his cock back inside her. _

"_Ohhh, that looks so sexy, Claire," Leon muttered as he leaned back and watched her reflection riding his reflection. He was mesmerized by the sight for a while, until he decided to hold her still so he could take her from below again. _

_After a few minutes of gentle thrusting by Leon, Claire shivered through a mini-orgasm. She turned to look at him in disbelief. This was just getting ridiculous. How did he keep __**doing **__that to her?_

"_Are you gonna cum some time today?" _

_He chuckled and helped her to turn around as he laid back across her bed, his feet still planted on the floor. She rolled her eyes and straddled his hips. "I've got half a mind to lay on __**my **__back and be a lazy fucker. I could fall asleep and you could wake me when you're done."_

_He smiled and shrugged. She reached beneath her hips and lifted his still very erect manhood. She lowered herself onto him, briefly thinking about how sore she'd be the next day. She sighed. It didn't matter. She'd missed him, and she was glad he was wearing her out. She'd been pining for him ever since she'd returned from Antarctica. Four months was a long time to wait._

_She sat up so he could watch her breasts bounce. He put his hands up and she intertwined her fingers with his, using his arms as leverage to raise and lower herself in long strokes along his shaft._

"_Nice?" she panted down to him._

_He smirked and answered, "Very."_

_She narrowed her eyes. He wasn't cumming. And to her shock and awe, she was the one who felt her sex tighten. She stopped bouncing and ground her groin into his. "Leon . . . I'm cumming again."_

"_I know."_

_She stiffened and climaxed, then fell over on top of him. "This is crazy."_

"_No, __**this **__is crazy," he replied before lifting his hips rapidly, teasing her anus, and spanking her ass all at the same time._

"_Ohhhhhh . . . Fuuuuck!"_

_She stared down at him, her face contorted with renewed passion. Eventually, she plopped her head down onto his shoulder. He stroked her hair out of her face and kissed her. "I'm not hurting you, am I, Baby?"_

_She shook her head vigorously. Last thing she wanted him to do now was a fool thing like stop. "Keep fucking me."_

"_Oh, God." That was an order he was more than happy to obey._

_She let him pleasure her for a while longer, then got off him suddenly. He hissed as she pulled herself off his length. She turned around and stroked him hard. She was determined to make him cum. She was starting to feel like he was being an asshole by holding out on purpose. She smiled at him innocently as she jerked him like a woman on a mission. He gave her a haughty smirk back when he didn't cum. She quirked a red brow. Now he was just showing off. She'd have to teach him a lesson._

_Claire lowered her head and licked him from root to tip. He shivered and gritted his teeth. She smiled and plunged him into her mouth. This time, she applied a lot of suction to his glans and stroked the rest of his shaft fast and hard, pulling him closer to the edge. _

_'There,' she thought. 'That ought to put an end to his bullshit stamina.'_

* * *

_Twenty minutes later, Claire was flat on her back, barely able to move, while Leon loomed above her, torso held up on his fists, knees pressed into the mattress, cock driving her into the bed._

"_I'm cumming again," she gasped, not moving as she was too out of breath. She was now almost certain that he was trying to kill her._

"_I can feel you," he panted with a playful grin. "You're so tight when you cum for me." She tilted her head back and moaned. "Ohhh, God. Fucking you is so amazing, Claire."_

"_I love when you're fucking me, Leon." They both moaned as he sped up. "Jesus Christ!" Claire muttered before he plunged his tongue between her lips. He pulled away and sat up on his haunches. He lifted her ankles onto his shoulders and went back to a slow rhythm. She curled her toes on either side of his head. Noticing the movement, he leaned to the left to indulge his fetish for her tiny feet. He loved how little they were. They were less than half the size of his own huge feet. He caressed the underside of her toes with his tongue. She giggled. "AH! You're tickling me!"_

"_Mm hm," he replied around a mouthful of her little toes. She giggled, then shivered. He grinned down at her. "Did you just cum again?" he panted in surprise. Apparently, she had a fetish for her own feet._

_She giggled and tried to suppress her trembling. "Shut up. That's a secret."_

_He chuckled. "A secret, huh?" All of a sudden, he started to pound her hard, prolonging her orgasm. She felt like she might pass out if he kept it up. When she came down off her high, he chuckled at the expression of disbelief on her face. She chuckled as well and smacked him on the ass. _

"_Fucker."_

"_Damn right," he muttered then leaned down to kiss her. He withdrew and turned her on her side. She'd gotten to a place where she couldn't even move unless he moved her, she was so tired. What the fuck battery from Hell was he running on?_

"_Tired," she complained. _

"_I know, Baby. I'm almost done."_

"_Well, hurry up." _

_He chuckled and entered her from behind. She whimpered. He sighed in resignation. He could have happily fucked Claire for a couple more hours, but he decided to give her a break by trying to end this. He was fairly certain he was walking the line between pleasing her and hurting her. _

_He rolled to his back, pulling her up across his torso. She wanted to put her legs on the outsides of his, but she had to use her hands to lift each leg into position because she was so weak. He grabbed her waist, and held her up. He thrust up into her fast but not too deeply. _

_She sighed and closed her eyes. As exhausted as he'd left her, she couldn't honestly say that he didn't still feel incredible when he was moving inside her like that. _

_He stopped to take a breath, and she slid off him and plopped herself face first onto the mattress at the foot of the bed. She tried to crawl off the end of the bed. _

_He laughed out loud and grabbed her ankle, preventing her escape. "Where the hell do you think __**you're **__going?"_

"_Away from you! You're insane, Bionic Dick!"_

"_I prefer Energizer Penis. Anyway, I said I was almost done."_

"_That was like three days ago!"_

_He laughed again. "Actually, it was about three minutes ago. Quit being such a girl."_

_She turned to glare at him. He wiggled his brows. He'd goaded her into accepting his challenge. "Let's do this, Bitch!"_

_He smiled. He was happy to realize he'd just figured out exactly how to get his girlfriend right where he wanted her. _

_On her hands and knees._

_He pulled himself up to his knees and lifted her hips. He pressed her head down onto the mattress and entered her. She gave him a hard squeeze with her inner muscles. She'd figured out how to heighten his pleasure too, it seemed._

"_Baby, you're gonna make me cum soon."_

_She sighed in relief. It was about goddamn time._

_Leon tilted his head back with his lips parted. He thrust harder. He panted brokenly._

_And then, finally, for the love of God, he came. A lot. A whole, __**whole **__lot._

_They collapsed on the bed and pretty much passed out for the next good hour. _

_Seriously . . . he needed to make a real effort to not spend four months away from her all at one time again. It wasn't healthy for his poor, blue balls._

* * *

After Leon told Chris that he had visited Claire in Maryland for the express reason of first fucking her raw, then taking her to see Sherry, Chris balled up his fist. Leon sighed, rolled his eyes and stared at Chris, waiting for the hit. The hit came, but it wasn't what Leon had expected.

Chris chuckled and lightly slugged Leon in the right shoulder.

"Nice one, Bro. Sounds like you really did good by her that day."

Leon looked at Chris like he was insane. "Let me get this straight. I tell you that I made quiet passionate love to your sister in R.C., and you hit me in the face. I tell you I fucked her like I had diabetes and her vagina had insulin in it, and you're proud of me?"

Chris laughed out loud. "Where is that from?"

"Chris Rock stand up special, and don't change the subject."

Chris shrugged. "I'm fickle."

Leon sputtered his beer in mid-swig. "You're a dumbass, is what you are."

Chris shrugged again and said, "First of all, you made quiet passionate love to my sister _on my desk! _Second of all, after Rockfort and losing Steve, she needed to feel good. She needed _you_. I'm glad that you gave her what she needed. Now, quit complaining when I _don't _hit you. Because I can easily rectify that." Leon chuckled and shook his head in amusement. Chris extended his hand to Leon, indicating he should continue. "Now, tell me the rest."

"We slept for a while. We talked in bed, she told me some of what happened to her in Rockford, and that she'd ended up in Antarctica. She still didn't tell me much about Steve just then. Just that there was another survivor that helped her escape. Then she changed the subject and asked if we could go see Sherry. I didn't think anything of it at the time."

"Sounds like you guys were in a good place."

"We were okay."

"Just okay?"

Leon shrugged. "Afraid so."

Chris sighed. "So, what happened with Sherry?"

"You know what happened."

"No, actually she never told me the details, and I chose not to push her on it. I know how much it hurt. Honestly, if you _really _would rather not talk about it, I'd understand, but I hope you'll choose to talk to me."

"You can guess."

"I can. But I think you should say it out loud. I think you need to."

Leon gulped down the rest of his beer and chucked the can across the patio into the recycle bin. He was up to eighteen points, at three points a can. Chris was only up to twelve, but then, he hadn't needed as much liquid courage as Leon had. Leon opened a fresh beer, signifying the beginning of his second six-pack. He stared off into the sky, balancing the can on his knee with his fingertips. The stars were starting to twinkle above them. He lost himself staring into the evening sky for a while, then sighed and responded.

"I drove Claire three hours away into D.C. to visit Sherry, and when we got there, we found out that Sherry had been captured by Wesker just a few hours before we arrived. Her guardians had been brutally murdered, and there was evidence that Sherry had put up a struggle. Her. . . her blood was in her room. DNA testing proved it was hers." Leon stealthily wiped a bit of moisture from his eye. "Sherry was gone, and . . . and hurt. And to top it all off, Claire blamed me. She said that if I hadn't been thinking with my cock and brought Sherry to her instead of the other way around, this would never have happened."

"And? What did you say?"

"And . . . I said it wasn't my fault. She said that it was and that she never wanted to see me again, never wanted me to touch her again. It was why I was so hesitant to even hold her in Harvardville." Chris nodded, finally understanding the whole scene between Leon and Claire in that tent. "I told her that it wasn't fair for her to blame me, that I could have just as easily blamed _her _for leaving us, but I didn't. My example came back to bite me in the ass though, because she took it to mean that I _did _feel that way about her."

"Didn't you?"

Leon shook his head with a frown. "No, I'd gotten over her leaving. I got why she did it. I might not have agreed, but I understood that she did it not only to keep _you _safe, but us too. Me and Sherry. I was only ever upset at the _way _she left. But I understood that she left us behind to keep us out of danger. She couldn't have known we'd be captured. She couldn't have known I'd fail so miserably to protect our kid."

"That's not true. Now you sound like she did."

"I thought you said she didn't talk to you about this."

"Not in so many words, but I guessed that something happened, especially when you and I finally met up again out in the field and you were so standoffish, like you weren't sure what she'd told me."

"That was more about the sex than Sherry. I figured she might've taken revenge on me for losing Sherry by telling you what we'd done intimately so you'd shoot me on sight."

Chris chuckled. "No, I think she regretted how you two parted ways pretty quickly. She was pretty tight-lipped about why you two weren't speaking, or even that you weren't speaking in the first place. I think she just didn't know how to approach you after the things she'd said to you."

"So, you know what she said then."

"Leon, for the last time, she never told me anything. I knew you two had some kind of rift, but I never knew what. I may not know exactly what she told you, but I know my sister. I know how she ticks, and I know how she deals with conflict when she's grieving. She's . . . she's not perfect, Leon. She doesn't deal with pain well. When she's hurting, she tends to hurt the ones she's closest to. She just gets so full of rage at the pain she feels . . . well, you know how they say misery loves company." He looked at his friend's face. He looked skeptical. Chris sighed. "Like I said, she's a hothead. Now, if you'd be so kind as to tell me exactly what she said to you, maybe I can tell you how stupid you were to believe her and you can move on with your life."

Leon was tightlipped for a moment, but he eventually gave in and opened up to his friend.

"She said Sherry being captured was my fault, and then that her own capture on Rockfort was somehow my fault. I told her that I would have died for her when she was practically a stranger. Now that she was my girlfriend, why would she think I would do anything to put her in harm's way? She said that I was wrong on two counts. First, she said that because I had argued with her, her head wasn't right when she entered that facility, so it _was _my fault she was captured."

"What was the other thing?"

Leon sighed and stared at the beer in his hand. He suddenly wanted to drain it completely. He really wanted something harder, if he was being honest. He decided against it and answered his friend. "She said that I was wrong about being her boyfriend. She said the man _she _loved, her boyfriend, had died in Antarctica."

Chris winced. "Ouch."

"Yeah. Tell me about it."

"She told you she liked Steve?"

"No, she told me she _loved _Steve, that he'd sacrificed his life for her and told her he loved her and that . . . that she'd . . . ."

"What?"

"She said they'd been . . . together. That she'd . . . you know, had sex with Steve."

Chris stared at Leon for while . . . and then bust out laughing. "What utter bullshit!" he laughed. Leon looked at Chris with pain in his eyes. Chris laughed even harder. "Oh, come on! You're not gonna tell me you _actually _bought that load of crap? Did you know her _at all?_"

"She was very serious when she told me that, Chris. She said she'd trade anything to have him back. She was looking at me when she said that. She said it like she would trade _me _to have him back."

"She was trying to get a rise out of you! Well, from the sad little puppy dog look on your face like ten years later, I'd say mission accomplished, Claire!" Chris laughed even harder when Leon frowned darkly at Chris's description of his facial expression.

"She ripped my heart out and pissed on it, Chris. Then she all but said she wished I was dead in Steve's place. I don't find that very funny. It's part of the reason I became the cold, distant person she claims I was in Harvardville."

Chris smiled and tried his best to stop laughing. "I'm sorry, Leon. I don't mean to laugh. It's just that Claire would have _never _gone for Steve. He was way too young and immature. All she felt was guilt about not being able to save him when she'd promised him they'd get out together. Especially since Wesker stole Steve's body. Like how you used to feel about Ada when you thought she died in R.C. As for the other part, I'm not dignifying that nonsense with a second of my time. Claire would die for you. She's not capable of wishing you harm."

"You weren't there. You didn't see the conviction in her eyes . . . the sorrow for losing Steve. The bitterness at my expense. She loved him, Chris. Hell, I asked her if she loved _me _while I was having sex with her and she laughed at me."

Chris looked at him skeptically. "She laughed _at _you?"

Leon sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "She chuckled."

"Leon, that's a nervous habit she's had since she was a kid. You probably caught her off guard. What the hell were you thinking asking her that?"

"Look, maybe it wasn't the best plan, but _I _could admit to loving _her. _Not to mention the fact that she had no problem admitting she loved Steve." Chris threw his hands up in disgust. Leon shook his head and continued. "Bro, I really appreciate how much you think of me, and that I'm _your _choice for Claire over Steve. But the truth is, I'm not _her _choice. I never was. I'll always be her runner-up, the one she settled for, and I can accept that, now. So, if I can, why can't you?"

Chris smiled and squeezed his friend's shoulder. "Leon, I can't honestly believe you'd think she'd want Steve over you. She told me when I rescued her that Steve said he loved her. She told me she felt guilty because she didn't feel the same way. You, on the other hand, she gave her virginity. When I asked her about you, she got all red and had this stupid little grin on her face, not unlike the one _you've _been sporting today. Plus, you were this buff special agent, and before that a buff young cop. And you're so cute." Chris made pinching motions near Leon's cheek again. He laughed when he heard a gun cock. "Anyway, I saw Steve's body. He was on the scrawny side, and he looked young. She was always very mature. She likes men, Leon, not boys, damn the luck for me over the years. Not to mention the fact that he was kind of short. He was close to her height, and Claire represents the Lollipop Kids and wants to welcome us to Munchkin Land." Leon smirked. That was such a big brother thing to say. "Claire hates short men. Burnside didn't stand a chance."

Leon sighed. "Love doesn't think about those trivial kinds of things. I liked tall women before I met Claire. Now, she's the epitome of what I think a beautiful woman should be, Munchkin height and all."

Chris smiled. "Leon, you should have been logical. One, she'd only known the kid for a day. Besides that, when would they have even had time in an outbreak to hook up?"

Leon looked at Chris evenly. "She'd only known me for a couple hours, and _we _found a place to have sex in an outbreak. The way I see it, it's not that she _only _had a day, it's that she had an _entire _day to think about where she wanted to fuck Steve. And I believe she did just that."

Chris frowned and fixed Leon with a murderous glare. "You know, I think I've been cool about what's been going on between you two. But when you start talking about what you shared with her, what you _swore _to me you felt was special . . . when you talk about that like Claire's some common whore who does that kind of thing all the time, I start thinking maybe we need to do a little more than trade punches."

Leon frowned as well. "We haven't _traded _anything. You keep taking cheap shots at me, and out of respect for the woman I love, I haven't hit her brother back. But don't think that a serious fight with me will be an easy win for you, Christopher. In fact, don't assume it would be a win at all. I have enough respect for _you _to admit that I don't honestly know which one of us would win in a fight. Respect my skills, too. And respect the fact that whoever wins, we'd _both _be in the hospital afterward. So don't fucking threaten me for telling you the truth. Remember, this was your idea. The fact that you backed me into a corner is something that _I've _been cool about. I'm not trying to test your patience. Don't test mine either."

The two friends glared at each other. The tension ran high for a few minutes. Finally, Chris sighed and said he was sorry.

"Apology accepted. And for the record, the points I made would have never even crossed my mind if Claire hadn't been the one to point them out to me. She was in a life or death situation with him, just like she'd been in with me. She gave me something beautiful, but she didn't care enough about me to stay, so maybe she felt the same thing for Steve at the time as she'd felt about me. In the end, maybe she felt more. Maybe if I died instead, she'd be happier. Maybe she wishes she'd saved herself for Steve instead of being with me first."

"You said she had no regrets. I believe that."

Leon stared down at his hands, hands that had given both life and death, hands that had given love and pain to Claire Redfield. "I know I shouldn't be so possessive, but I kind of wished that I'd been her one and only."

Chris rolled his eyes and forced his friend to meet his gaze. "Leon . . . Claire did _not _sleep with Steve. When would she even have had time to . . . ?"

"On the plane to Antarctica. She said so. It was plenty of time. _And _she said he was better than me."

Chris stared at his friend with sympathy. That was a very low blow on his sister's part. Still, even with the scenario being intellectually possible, the reality was a ridiculous notion in his mind. "She obviously lied to you to hurt you."

"No, I think she lied to _you _to protect her image in your eyes. She certainly didn't tell you about me."

Chris pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Leon . . . Claire did _not _fuck sixteen-year-old Burnside on a plane to freedom. She wanted to hurt you. I wish I could say that my sister wasn't capable of that level of cruelty, but I'd be lying. After Mom and Dad died, I learned that Claire could be _very _cruel when she wanted to be. Hurt, anger, and loss make her capable of saying horrible things, even to people she loves. Even to me." He remembered how hurt he was when she told him their parents were disappointed in him for leaving the family for the military. It's why he'd tried to drink his father's liquor cabinet dry after the funeral.

"Whatever you say."

Chris sighed. He wasn't going to get through to him. Leon would never believe that Claire didn't sleep with Steve unless Claire told him. And he'd never ask her about it. Leon had basically resigned himself to the fact that the woman he loved had committed statutory rape with a teenager only a couple weeks after she'd traded Leon her purity for his far too enormous heart. There would be no convincing him. He'd believed it to be true for far too long, even after they'd reconciled. Chris frowned. Claire should be ashamed of herself. He'd be sure to have a chat with her about this later. If Leon was going to tell her about all this anyway, she'd surely be confronting Chris before the night was out, so why wait?

Chris looked at his friend . . . his bro. He looked so hurt. Chris could only think of one thing to say to a man who was more his family than any of his living blood relatives but Claire.

"I'm so sorry, Bro."

Leon shrugged and downed his beer. He was pretty sure he was good and drunk now. It probably wasn't a great idea to drink so much on a near empty stomach. 'Oh, well.' He sighed and opened number eight. "S'okay," he finally replied to Chris's comment. He drained half the new can. "I think the thing that hurt the most was knowing that I could die in an outbreak and she may not have cared. Chris I wanted to make Claire my wife when I got out of training. I loved her. I felt that if something _did _happen to me, she should get my tags and flag. Now, I have it in my will that they should go to my parents, or to my little sister Emily if my parents are deceased."

Chris's eyebrows shot up. Leon wanted her to have his dog-tags and the American flag from his coffin after he died? That was huge, an honor typically reserved for a deceased soldier's spouse, children, or parents. He had never known that a man existed who loved his little Claire-Bear so much. "Hey, don't let the memories eat you alive. That's what _you _told _me_, remember?"

"Yeah. I remember."

"So, it wasn't the end. Now, the two of you are closer than ever. Fate brought you back together, and you even got to be together again two more times."

Leon smiled and nodded. "That's true."

Chris smiled and clapped his very inebriated friend on the back. "Hand it over."

Leon frowned in confusion. "Do what now?"

"The beer. Claire will kill me if she gets back and finds you like this."

Leon waved away Chris's hand. "I'm fine."

"You're plastered."

"Bullshit," Leon slurred.

Chris sighed and got up. He went into the kitchen, took a big pitcher of Brita water out of the refrigerator, and poured Leon a tall glass. He took the glass and the pitcher outside and handed Leon the glass. "Drink. You need to flush out the beer."

Leon smirked. "Okay. But speaking of flush, I gotta pee first."

"You sure you don't have to take another dump?"

Leon frowned. "Claire's a dick!"

Chris chuckled. "I know. She does the same thing to me when I have to pee. Jill probably thinks I have dysentery by now."

Leon nodded and walked as stably as he could into the house. He returned in five minutes with a bit more pep in his step. "Sorry about the bathroom."

Chris raised a brow. "What about the bathroom?"

Leon smirked. "Nothing."

Chris narrowed his eyes then handed Leon his glass of water. "Okay. _Don't _tell me. You can deal with Jill by yourself when she gets back and sees whatever you just did. Now, drink."

Leon nodded and drained the glass. He poured himself another one then sank into the couch. "I feel better. Thanks."

"Not a problem."

"Now, where was I?"

"Encounter number four, if you please. Harvardville, I take it?"

"Yeah."

"In the airport or outside WilPharma?"

"Go fuck yourself. Two weeks later."

"Oh," Chris replied with a chuckle. "Just checking."


	5. Chapter 4:A Nightmare on Claire's Street

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5 with flashbacks in italics

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

**Author's Notes: **Thank you to everyone who is still hanging in there with me. Please enjoy the fourth of my five lemons starring Claire and Leon.

* * *

**CHAPTER 4: A Nightmare on Claire's Street**

_**Cumberland, Maryland: the master bedroom of a suburban home on the East Side**_

"_OH, GOD! PLEASE, DON'T HURT THEM! PLEEEASE!"_

_Claire shot up in bed, gun in hand, aiming at the empty darkness in her bedroom. Her hand shook as she pointed the Browning back and forth at the shadows that surrounded her. Senses on high alert, much as most of her fellow outbreak survivors would be, it took her a good few minutes to realize that it had all been a dream._

_A horrible, hellish dream. _

_She was not in an Umbrella research facility. She was not strapped to an operating table. Her legs were still attached to her body, and her arms still looked quite human. But most of all, she was alone. Chris wasn't strapped to the table to her left. Leon wasn't strapped to the table to her right. And Steve . . . Steve wasn't looming over her in mutant form, wearing a tattered white lab coat, carrying the axe he'd had in Antarctica, and telling her not to worry, that they'd all be leaving together. He hadn't told her he loved her before cutting first Chris and then Leon in half with that axe. None of it was real, even though she could still hear how the crunch of the axe through their bodies abbreviated their cries of pain as they were each killed. _

_And Steve didn't lift the axe above her and bring it down on her head. That definitely didn't happen._

_That's when she woke up crying, as she always did when she died in her dreams. Having realized that she wasn't in mortal danger, she put the gun down on her comforter. She was breathless and sweating and her nerves were fractured, but she was so grateful to Fate, the heavens, and the powers that be that it had only been another bad dream._

_Claire wiped her tears with the backs of her hands, but every time she did, her eyes would leak all over again. She just couldn't seem to stop sobbing. Seeing Steve like that . . . seeing him hurt Chris and Leon . . . ._

_Without even realizing that she was doing it, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Christopher's number. It rang for a while, and then went to voicemail. _

"_Oh . . . right. He and Jill are off on assignment in Iceland. He said there'd be no cell phone signal where they were going."_

_She stared down at the phone in her hand. She didn't know whether she should make the other call or not. Finally, she sighed and dialed. She was crying again before the person she called picked up._

"_I just need to hear his voice."_

* * *

_**Washington, D.C. - Georgetown district: the bedroom of a swank luxury condominium**_

_RING!_

_RING!_

_RING!_

_The more masculine of the bedroom's two occupants groaned into his pillow._

_RING!_

_He pushed the sheet off his head and peered at the alarm clock with one squinted eye. _

_RING!_

_Twelve forty-seven a.m. He frowned._

_RING!_

_He sighed and picked up the cordless. He yawned into his arm and then grumbled into the receiver._

"_Kennedy here. Somebody better be dead." There was no answer. "Hello?" Still nothing. "You have until the count of three to speak, or I'm hanging up. One. . . . Two. . . . Thr- . . ."_

"_Leon?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Um. I'm sorry I woke you."_

"_Who is this, please?"_

_There was a little sob and then a shaky sigh. "I shouldn't have called. I'm sorry I woke you."_

"_Claire?"_

"_Yeah. It's me. I should go."_

"_NO! I mean . . . wait a minute, Claire. Um . . . why are you crying?"_

_She chuckled, but it was underscored by sniffling. "Don't worry about it. It's stupid."_

"_If it was important enough for you to call me in the middle of the night, then it's not stupid. Now, what's the matter?"_

_She couldn't stop crying now. "I didn't mean to wake you. I'm so sorry. Tell Angela I'm sorry if I woke her." She didn't sound at all bitter. She sounded contrite._

"_What?"_

"_Good night, Leon. Tell Angela good night for me, too."_

"_Claire, wait! Claire? Claire!" Dial tone was the only reply. He quickly dialed her cell number, but it went straight to voicemail. "Godammit, Claire!" he growled in frustration. Clearly, she had shut off her phone._

_Leon threw off his covers and jumped out of his bed. He turned to the female he was sharing his bed with, caressed her head, and told her, "Go back to sleep, Honey. I have to go take care of something. Don't wait up." His bedmate just closed her eyes and snuggled deeper under the covers. He went into the kitchen, made certain there was something avalable for her to eat just in case he didn't get back for a while, then rushed into the bathroom to take a quick shower. _

_He was in his clothes and out the door in under ten minutes. Before he hit the door, he grabbed his car keys, house keys, and government I.D. He was gonna need the latter, because he was planning on doing some serious speeding. His Secret Service identification was a must to keep from getting arrested every time he got pulled over. _

'_And I'm __**definitely **__gonna be pulled over,' he thought. He got behind the wheel of his new 2007 Mazerati Gran Tourismo and gunned the engine._

_He tore out of the parking garage of his building at over eighty miles per hour. He hit the highway at about a hundred and twenty miles per hour and raced towards the Maryland state line._

_At normal hours and with normal daytime traffic patterns, Claire's house would be almost three hours away from his Georgetown condo by car. But at the speeds Leon pushed his Italian roadster, with the lack of nearly any cars on the road, and after getting pulled over four times for less than two minutes each time (thanks to his government I.D.), he reached her neighborhood in just over an hour. He slowed from his one hundred seventy-five mile per hour speed to a respectable fifty as he exited the off ramp._

_Leon parked in Claire's driveway right behind her 1965 Shelby Cobra convertible. Her Harley's characteristic shape could be made out under a tarp where it sat in front of the Shelby. He smiled. They both loved speed. It was no surprise they both owned European grand touring roadsters. _

_He got out of his Mazerati and walked up the side path to the back of her house. He didn't bother to ring her doorbell this time, knowing she wouldn't answer anyway, in the mood she was in. Plus, it was possible she'd cried herself to sleep, so he wouldn't want to wake her if she __**was**__ sleeping. Claire was the strongest woman Leon had ever met, but on the rare occasions when she fell apart, she became the most fragile woman he knew. He sighed. 'What am I gonna do with you, Red?' he mused._

_Leon pulled out his lock-picks and let himself in the back door, entering her spacious kitchen. He smiled. Claire had been the first person he'd ever seen pick a lock. He'd thought back then that a criminal had taught her. But Leon had learned the skill, along with several others like picking pockets and hotwiring cars, from the same person as Claire . . . BSAA Agent and former S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine. _

_Leon took off his shoes and left them by the cellar door, knowing how she was about her carpets the last time he was there. He made his way upstairs and into her bedroom. He found her sleeping, but not so peacefully. She was sobbing into her pillow. _

_He took off his faded gray jeans and black socks, leaving him only in a dark gray pair of boxer-briefs and a black fitted tee. He carefully lifted the comforter and sheet and slid slowly into bed beside her. He gently pulled her against him, stroked her hair out of her face and kissed her left cheek. Her eyes flew open and she pressed a gun underneath his chin. He had no idea where she'd just pulled that from. He saw her hands when he got into bed, and they were empty. She'd have to teach him that trick. _

"_Hi, Claire," he said with a smirk. "It's nice to see you, too."_

_When she blinked the sleep from her eyes, and focused on him, she sighed in relief. "Don't scare me like that, Leon!" she scolded groggily._

"_Sorry," he whispered. _

_She nodded her acceptance of his apology and closed her eyes, snuggling deeper into his embrace. "S'okay," she muttered into his chest. _

_A moment later, her eyes shot open again. "Leon?" _

"_Yeah?" _

"_What're you doing here?"_

_He shrugged. "You called me in the wee hours and you sounded a wreck. So I came to see if you were okay."_

_She stared at him, blinking in disbelief. She glanced over his shoulder at her digital alarm clock. It was only about an hour and a quarter from when she'd hung up on him. "How are you here so soon? You live like three hours away!" _

"_Only if you obey traffic laws," he replied with a chuckle. _

_She lowered her eyes and stared at his chest. "Leon, I know you don't really want to be here, so you don't need to stay. Please, leave."_

"_Not until you tell me why you were so upset on the phone."_

"_It's not a big deal. You should go."_

"_I don't wanna go."_

_She chuckled humorlessly. "Sure you don't."_

_He could hear the sarcasm in her voice. It was cold and empty, like the way she spoke to him after Downing was arrested in Harvardville. He sighed and hugged her. "There isn't anywhere I'd rather be right now than right here with you." She frowned and shook her head. He sighed and caressed her cheek. "Come on, Claire. Don't be like that. I came because I was concerned about you. Don't politely blow me off. I hate that we talk to each other like strangers." His arms were already wrapped around her, so it didn't take much effort for him to rub her back. "You __**used **__to let me hold you when you were frightened in the night." Although they never slept in the same bed until the night she left back when they were on the run with Sherry, he had certainly comforted her after many a nightmare . . . and only been punched the once._

_She sighed as his fingers worked magic on her lower back. The bumps and bruises from Harvardville were still pretty sore. She shook her head. She couldn't let him get inside her heart again. Not when she knew he belonged to another woman. _

"_That was before."_

"_Before what?"_

_She looked up at him with a frustrated frown. "You __**know **__what. We didn't exactly part ways in the friendliest of manners five, six years ago." _

_He nodded. "I know. But five and a half years is a long time. I'd hoped that maybe you weren't as angry with me anymore."_

_She shook her head. "You're the one who's angry with me."_

_He smirked again and kissed her forehead softly. "Do I __**look **__mad?" _

_She smiled a little. " But I thought you were angry . . . in Harvardville, you . . . ."_

_He interrupted her. "Harvardville is over. The only thing that matters to me about that day is that it re-connected me with you."_

_Her smile broadened. "You were always so sweet, Leon. I've missed you. I wish I never said the things I did to you."_

_He shrugged. "It's how you feel. And you were right. You asked me to take care of Sherry and I failed you both."_

_She shook her head vigorously. "No, that was cruel of me. You tried to protect her. That's more than I did. If the government couldn't hold on to her, how could I blame one injured man, when I'm the one who left in the first place." She swiped fresh tears from her eyes. "I left in a bad way, and I never apologized for that. I hope you know how sorry I am. And especially after what we shared that night, for me to leave before you woke up was so wrong."_

_He sighed. "Look, Claire. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that it didn't hurt, both me and Sherry." She lowered her gaze, but he lifted her chin to face him again. "But I also know that what you said in your letter was true. I __**don't **__know what it feels like to lose my entire family save for one person. I can't imagine how terrified you must have been to possibly lose Chris, too. To maybe lose the only immediate family you had left."_

_She shook her head again. "But it wouldn't have been the last of my family. I still had Sherry." She caressed his cheek. "I still had you. And when we lost Sherry . . ." She gripped his hand. "__**We **__lost Sherry, Leon. Not just you. When we lost her, I realized that I might have been able to prevent it if only I hadn't been chasing after Chris." She started to cry outright. "I left a child and an injured rookie with one day of real police experience to go try to save a man with military training and biceps the size of my thighs." She chuckled humorlessly as she turned to grab a tissue from the box on her nightstand. "And in the end, all I did was get myself captured." She wiped her eyes and sniffled. "What the hell was I thinking?"_

_He shrugged. "You were thinking that you needed to find your brother. I don't blame you, Claire. I haven't blamed you for a long time now. And I'm sorry for the things I said that day, too."_

"_You were just defending yourself against the terrible things I said to you."_

_He sighed and placed two fingers to her mouth. "Enough. It doesn't matter. It's been forever since I'd seen you before two weeks ago, and at the end of that day, I thought it would be forever until I saw you again. It . . . it hurt to see you and then lose you all over again, Claire. I don't want to argue about who was the most angry in the past. I just want to hold you again . . . like old times. When we were a couple." She licked her lips and shivered a little as he ran his fingertips along her lumbar spine again. "See? I didn't come all this way to argue. I just want to make you feel good." His smile was full of warmth, as was the kiss he bestowed on her lips right after. _

_She smiled a little sheepishly. "Don't do that."_

_He smirked at her and then kissed her lips again. "Why not?"_

"_Because . . ." she started. She didn't finish her thought. She suddenly felt him move his leg under the covers, and when it brushed against her shin, she realized she felt bare skin. "Leon . . . where are your pants?"_

"_On the chair by the wall." He kissed her lips, throat, chin, and again her lips. He smirked at her as he slid one hand under her t-shirt to massage her braless breasts._

_She stared into his eyes then narrowed her own. "Leon, it's really not cool to leave one woman in your bed to go get into the bed of another one. Now, I may not be fond of Angela, but I won't be a party to you treating her like that. So, get your hand out my t-shirt, get your clothes back on, and get right back in your car. Go back to your girlfriend. I'm fine. I told you that on the phone." _

_Leon rolled his eyes and sighed. "Okay, first of all, I wasn't in bed with Angela, or any other woman, for that matter. The only other soul in my bed when you called me was my cat Honey, and for the record, I've never slept with Angela. I haven't even gone on a date with her." _

"_No, you just went 'diving' with her, whatever __**that **__sexual euphemism means." _

_He frowned but didn't dignify her comment with a response. "__**Second **__of all, you called me crying in the middle of the night, hung up, and then you wouldn't answer the phone when I called you back. Do you honestly think, after all the horrors we've witnessed, I'd just shrug and roll over to go back to sleep after that, not knowing if you were okay?" _

_She sighed and shook her head. "I guess not. I mean, you're here." _

"_That's right. I'm here." He kissed her again. "Now tell me what's wrong and then let me make you feel better, so you can get back to sleep." _

_She bowed her head in shame. "It was just a nightmare, Leon. A stupid nightmare, and you've driven almost a hundred and fifty miles in the middle of the night over it. I'm sorry, Sweetheart. I really am fine. You don't need to stay. I don't want you to be late for work tomorrow." _

_He smiled. "It's okay, Claire. I'm still on leave for another couple of days. Hunnigan asked the President to give me a break since I seemed to be so burned out after Harvardville and the mission in Shanghai that followed it. And truth be told, even if you __**had**__ talked to me on the phone tonight, I would still have come to check on you." He slid a hand down her torso this time and teased her through her pajama pants. "Although . . . I won't deny ulterior motives," he said with a playful smirk. _

_She smiled. "I suppose I know you would have come no matter what." She sighed as he found her clit and rubbed it to a stiff little peak. She caressed his hair off his face where it was blocking her view of his right eye. "How __**was **__that other mission? Was it the one you got the text about right before we parted ways in Harvardville?"_

"_Yeah." He shrugged. "Mission's a mission, I guess."_

"_I suppose. Chris said he saw you."_

_He nodded. "That's right. We've crossed paths quite a bit over the years."_

_She smiled. "It's so funny that you've become so close with my brother and yet it's only been one time that I've even been in the same room as both of you at the same time."_

"_You both visited the training facility and wrote me often when I was being morphed from a cop into an agent."_

"_Yeah, but we almost never even got to see you when we visited. Just that one time." She giggled. "And I was so flabbergasted at seeing you again, I didn't say a word! Chris teased me for weeks!"_

_He smiled. "Doesn't matter. I knew you both came to try to see me, even when we didn't actually see each other in person. It got me through the bad days."_

"_I'm glad. It's just weird, ya know? I mean we all talk on three-way sometimes, but it's still so odd. And Chris knows you and I barely ever see each other, and yet he always asks me about you. I think that of all the guys that have ever been prospects for me, he likes you the best."_

_Leon was surprised by that. "Yeah? How so?" He pushed his hand down her pants and rubbed her naked sex._

_She exhaled loudly and returned the favor, sliding her own hand into his boxer-briefs. "Well, he teases me about you instead of trying to shoot you on sight."_

_Leon laughed. "I don't know. The first time we spoke, when you were held prisoner on Rockfort Island, he had a few choice words for me."_

_She laughed as she stroked him a little faster. "You were some stranger calling him on what should have been a secure line, telling him his sister was being held prisoner by Umbrella when he didn't even know I'd been in an outbreak. He thought you were an Umbrella operative and that I'd been kidnapped from my school. It sounded like a threat to him."_

_He laughed along with her. "Yeah. I know how it sounded. I would have probably reacted the same way if some random dude called me about __**my **__baby sister."_

"_How __**is **__Emily? And your parents for that matter . . . how are they?"_

"_They're fine. I'll tell them I saw you."_

_She shook her head and stopped stroking his cock. "Uh, _y_ou'll tell them you saw me in __**Harvardville**__. You will __**not **__tell them you crept into my bed in the middle of the night to put your hand down my pants. I know how inappropriate your sense of humor is."_

"_Ha! You've got some fucking nerve saying __**my **__sense of humor is off color!" He smirked and rubbed her faster as a hint for her to continue to do the same for him. "So anyway, I can't tell my mother and father about this?" _

_She gasped then giggled. "No!" She immediately went back to stroking him._

_He slowed his hand and kissed her cheek. "Oh. Well, I _guess _I can keep it a secret . . . but it depends on what you plan to give me to buy my silence." He smirked wickedly._

_She narrowed her eyes at him. "You play dirty, Agent Kennedy."_

_He chuckled. "Hey, I deserve a little fun after the way your older brother traumatized me when I called him that first time."_

_She giggled. "Why? What did he say?"_

"_Well, when I started telling him things you'd said only the two of you would know, he said I'd tortured it out of you to gain credibility with him so he would go to Rockfort and fall into my nefarious trap. He actually used the word 'nefarious'. Then he threatened to remove my means of procreation."_

_She laughed even harder. "Good lord, Chris! Paranoid, much?"_

_Leon shrugged. Claire giggled a little, but stopped when she saw the intensity in his gaze. He leaned in and kissed her again, pushing his tongue between her lips, and his finger between her lower ones. She returned the kiss with equal fervor, wrapping her free arm around him. They stroked each other harder, panting against each other's lips. _

_They made out for several minutes, tentatively at first, but after a while they were as comfortable with each other as the last time they'd made love. _

_He pulled his hand out of her pants, extricated hers from his underwear, and pulled it up to his face to kiss her palm. "That was nice," he said._

"_Yeah. Unexpected, too. I thought you didn't like me anymore." She looked down at his chest, unable to face him. She'd been pretty cruel the last time they parted ways after his training ended and he surprised her. And just two weeks before in Harvardville, they'd been treating each other like they weren't even ex-lovers, not even old friends. And he seemed far more interested in Angela than her. She'd cried about it to Chris a few days before, when Chris visited her and mentioned seeing Leon in Asia. She had been so upset about how they spoke to each other. They talked to one another like . . . former work associates or something. Maybe not like __**total **__strangers, as Leon had suggested, but definitely not like people who'd shared their most intimate moments. Not like people who'd shared the loss of her virginity. Not like people who had been in love. And she knew that was her fault. She just didn't even know how to begin to make it right. _

_Leon placed his hand under her chin and tilted her head up to face him. "Of course, I still like you Claire. You're the most important woman in the world to me except my Mom and Emily." _

_She smiled, a little embarrassed. "Thanks, Leon."_

"_You don't need to thank me, Claire. I've seen you naked. You kinda grow on a guy when he's seen you naked." _

_She chuckled. "Perv."_

_He smiled. "Besides, you're kind of irresistible, ya know?" He tickled her left nipple._

_She giggled. "Yeah? Well you're pretty irresistible, yourself."_

_They kissed again. He caressed her face. "I should tell you that no other woman I've ever made love to meant as much to me as you do." _

_She smiled and pulled him on top of her. "Will you make love to me tonight, Leon?" _

_He nodded and smiled. "I'll make love to you anytime you want as long as we're both single, Claire. I want you to always remember that if you need me, you only have to ask. But I will never encroach upon your happiness if you find it with someone else."_

_She smiled back at him. "That goes double for me, Leon." _

_He nodded and kissed her, thinking there was no one else but Claire, and there never would be. "Okay. Now __**that's **__all settled, give me a minute. I'll be right back." He got out of bed and strode out the bedroom door._

_She stared after him in shock. "Hey! Where the hell are you going?"_

"_Bathroom! I stopped at an all-night drive-thru Dunkin Donuts on the way here! Fucking large iced tea is about to explode out of me!"_

_She giggled and shook her head. 'Oh, well,' she thought. 'At least it gives me a chance to have a little surprise waiting for him when he comes back.'_

* * *

_Leon finished emptying his bladder and washing his hands. He walked back to Claire's bedroom feeling pretty damn good about himself. He hadn't made love to Claire in over five years. The last time, four months without her had almost killed him. But five and a half years of no Claire . . . how had he survived?_

'_I hope she's ready for me,' he thought. But when he opened her bedroom door, he wondered if __**he **__was ready for __**her**__. "Wow," he muttered as he closed the door behind him, unable to tear his eyes away from her._

_She smiled. "You like?"_

_His eyes traveled her body. She had changed her clothes while he was out of the room. She'd traded in the white T-shirt and brown flannel pajama bottoms she'd been sleeping in for a baby blue see-through teddy with black satin trim and a matching thong. The straps on both the nightgown and panties were a continuation of the black silky outline that ran the edges of each piece of lingerie. She was sitting in the middle of the bed on her haunches, her knees a little far apart while she toyed with the edge of her nightie . . . a sexy pose if ever he'd seen one. And to top off the look her hair was down. It reached all the way to the small of her back. "Oh, yeah. I like, alright."_

"_I'm glad." She looked him up and down. "God, Leon. I can't get over how big you got since the last time we were together. And to think I thought you were hot before!"_

_He leaned back against the door and crossed his arms, his muscles flexing to strain at his t-shirt. "Nothing compared to how __**you've **__changed, Claire."_

"_Yeah? How so?"_

"_You looked so . . . young before. Still incredibly beautiful, mind you, but young. Since we parted ways, you've developed into such a stunning woman."_

_She chuckled. "I don't know if you're saying I was immature before or that I'm old now."_

_He smiled in amusement. "How old __**are **__you now?" _

"_Twenty four. I'll be twenty-five in December."_

"_Damn! You're getting up there! That's a quarter of a century!" He chuckled as he remembered her saying in Atlantic City that she thought he was old like Chris, who was at the time twenty-five. _

_She laughed. "Oh my God! Don't say that!" _

"_I'm only teasing. You look fuckin' smokin', Baby."_

_She pushed her hair back off her forehead. "Thank you, Leon."_

"_No need to say 'thanks'. You look almost exactly like you did the last time we were together, but you carry yourself with a bit more maturity. You seem . . . I don't know, more confident about having sex with me. Otherwise the only thing that's different is your hair is longer and your naval is pierced." He kept up his smile but inside he thought that the other change was that her leg was scarred from Harvardville. That brought back memories of the pain of thinking she'd died in that explosion. He pushed the thoughts away quickly. _

_She smiled, oblivious to his painful memories at seeing the surprisingly well-healed faint scar on her leg. "You noticed my belly ring?" she asked seductively._

"_Yeah I noticed," he responded with a sexy little smirk. "I'm actually looking at your piercing right now. I __**can **__see through that nightie, you know."_

_She giggled. "That was the general idea." She toyed with her blue topaz and onyx naval piercing through the sheer material of her chemise. "So, why are you standing way over there, anyway?" she purred seductively._

_He chuckled. "Just enjoying the view."_

"_What can I do to get you to come closer?" She unfolded her legs out from under herself to reveal a pair of black stiletto heeled strappy sandals. The lack of scuff marks on the bottoms told him they were brand new._

_His eyes widened. "Can you keep those on?"_

_She toyed with the heel of her left shoe. "Sure."_

_He walked over to the bed. "See? You know exactly how to make me come closer." He stopped at the foot of her bed. She took off her nightie and tossed it on the floor then laid back and peeled her thong down off her hips. She lifted her legs in the air and slid the tiny scrap of material up their length, giving him full view of her sex. "Mmmm. I remember that," he sighed. She giggled and slingshot her thong at him. He caught it effortlessly, took a whiff, and closed his eyes. He sighed in ecstasy. "God, no woman ever smelled as good to me as you do, Claire."_

"_Thanks . . . I think."_

_He smiled and opened his eyes before tossing the thong over his shoulder. "Well? You wanted me closer. I'm over here waiting for you to make the next move."_

_She giggled and crawled across the mattress toward him, then used his body to pull herself to her knees. She tilted her head up as he bent to kiss her. There was no uncertainty this time. This time, they kissed with a passion and longing that stated clearly how much the nearly six years apart had affected both of them._

_He pushed her down onto her back. He caressed her torso from her flat stomach up to her full breasts. "I fucking love your tits, Sweetheart. You know, when we met, before I got a chance to, uh . . . inspect them firsthand, I thought they weren't real?" _

_She giggled. "You thought I had fake titties?" He nodded. "That's hysterical! If I had __**that**__ kind of money, I'd have spent it on another motorcycle, not another excuse for men to stare me in the chest when they talk to me."_

_Leon chuckled. "I hate to admit it, but I've done that from time to time in the past." She gasped and giggled as she slapped his arm. He laughed even harder. "Well, can you blame me? I mean, you really do have a perfect set of breasts, Claire. They're big . . . D cups, right?" She nodded. "Yeah. Big beautiful D's, but they're so firm . . . it's like they defy gravity." He jiggled them a little. "And they bounce extra nice for me when I pound you."_

_She chuckled. "They love you back. Wanna show them a little love, now?" She wiggled her eyebrows._

_He moaned. "Thought you'd never ask." He knelt to the floor and leaned down to take her left nipple into his mouth. He sucked it hard, pulling on it with his lips. _

_She bit her bottom lip as her eyelids fluttered closed. He suckled, licked, teased, pinched, and nipped at her hardened little nubbin. "That's so good, Leon. You always treat my breasts so nice."_

_He didn't answer with words, he just moved his head to give the other nipple equal treatment. She stroked his hair and caressed his cheek. She smiled at the feel of late night stubble on his face. _

_He pressed her breasts together and sucked each nipple alternately. She moaned and gripped his face with both hands. She pulled his head up and kissed him. _

_He smiled. _"_Problem?"_

"_Yeah. You're getting me too excited too fast. I want this to last. You were right . . . it's been far too long. And since neither of us has work tomorrow, I expect nothing less than being pleasured all night."_

_He nodded. "I think I can handle that."_

_She smiled and kissed him again. "Want to use a condom?" she muttered against his lips._

"_Not particularly," he replied, and then smirked. "Why? What are you trying to say?"_

"_I'm not __**trying **__to say anything, Mr. Sensitive. But if your slutty, diving ass gives me herpes, my brother will murder you."_

_He chuckled. "I'm clean, but I'm not naïve enough to believe that all my partners have been. That's why I use a condom every time."_

"_Not with me you haven't."_

"_You were different . . . a virgin."_

"_Not the second time."_

_He thought about Steve Burnside and shrugged. He sighed. 'She's right. I even asked her if she'd had sex with anyone else in the four months we were apart. She lied to me and fucked me without a condom anyway. For all I knew at the time, I could have caught anything indirectly from Burnside. I guess she must have had herself checked out. Or at least I __**hope **__she didn't risk giving me something. I'd like to think she'd be a bit more sensitive about viral infections, considering all we've been through with Umbrella.' He looked her in the eyes and tried to smile. "I guess you're right. You certainly were not untouched the second time." She didn't notice but he sounded a little sad. "Well, I don't know about you, but you've always been different to me. You're the only woman I've ever had sex with sans protection."_

"_Aww, that's sweet. I've never had sex with a woman without a condom, either."_

_His eyes widened. "You've had sex with a woman?"_

_She giggled. "God, you're easy. No, I was just joking."_

"_Damn," he replied in mock disappointment. "Too bad. Thanks for the imagery though."_

_She slapped his arm then kissed him again. "Perv. Now, stop talking and start loving. I'm clean, too . . . and still on the pill. If you want a condom, I leave it up to you. I think there's some in the nightstand."_

_He quirked a brow. "Why do you have condoms in your nightstand?"_

_She smirked. "What the fuck, Leon? Do you think I sat around the last few years pining for you or something?"_

_He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. This time, she definitely noticed the sadness in his tone. "No. I guess you wouldn't."_

_She sighed and kissed him. "Sorry. I suppose talking about other men I've had sex with is kind of a mood killer."_

"_Little bit, yeah."_

_She couldn't believe it. He looked genuinely hurt! "Leon! Are you mad at me?"_

_He shrugged. "Not mad. Just . . . disappointed. I mean, don't get me wrong. I know we've been broken up for a long time, but it's a hard pill to swallow knowing you haven't belonged solely to me."_

_She looked guilty, then a little indignant. _"_Well . . . are you gonna tell me __**you **__weren't with other women while we were apart?"_

_He shook his head, actually looking a bit ashamed. "No. I've had sex with a lot of girls since you, but . . . ." He shook his head. "Never mind. Forget I mentioned it. You'll probably just call me a hypocrite."_

"_No, I won't. Please, tell me. I want to know how you feel." She smiled as reassuringly as she could muster. But on the inside, she wasn't feeling so great. __**Assuming **__he'd had sex with someone else since they broke up and __**knowing **__he had was a big difference. And he said __**a lot **__of girls. She didn't like knowing that at all. She realized that she'd hoped __**he'd **__been pining away for __**her**_. _'Bitter pill, indeed,' she thought._

"_Well, I know you don't care about what I do with other girls, Claire," he replied. "But I wasn't a virgin when you met me, so why __**would **__you care? But since I was your first, I'm kind of possessive about you. And all the women I've been with since you were one-night stands, and they never were in my home. The fact that you have condoms in your house, by your bed . . . I feel weird about the fact that I know you've had sex with someone else in this very room, this very bed. Someone you might have shared a real relationship with. I just . . . regret that we never had that." _

"_Leon, how could you say that? We had a relationship!"_

_He shook his head. "We never got a chance to. Every time we connected, we were broken up before it could go anywhere."_

_Her face fell. "I've never seen it that way. I thought you felt like I was your girlfriend from the day we met until . . . well, until four months later."_

_He stared at her for a moment. She couldn't possibly be serious. Then again, maybe she just saw them as not exclusive, or that he was a fall-back boyfriend after the man she truly loved had died. He sighed and smiled at her. "Sure, Claire. I'm glad you feel that way." He kissed her cheek. "And I'm sorry if I'm being moody and unreasonable about your love life. I know, it's just stupid male pride, but I can't help how I feel."_

_She smiled. "I don't think it's stupid or unreasonable at all, Leon. I think it's sweet." She kissed him with tenderness and affection. "And I'm so happy that you feel that way about me, Sweetheart."_

_He smiled a little more genuinely. At least she cared that he cared. "Thanks for understanding, Claire."_

"_Thanks for giving a damn, Leon. You make me feel like a lady when you talk like that." She kissed him tenderly. "Now, drop your drawers, ya hypocrite, so I can swallow your giant cock."_

_He laughed out loud as he pushed his underwear down his thighs. "Lady, my ass."_

_Claire moved down to get on all fours on the mattress. She took a delicate hand to his manhood, which was now completely erect, and lifted it towards her lips. She kissed the tip, licked around the circumference of the head, and then sucked the top half of it into her mouth. He moaned quietly. _

_She started a gentle rhythm of slow suction. He moaned again as she took him a little deeper into her mouth. His eyes traveled her body._

"_God, Claire. Look at that ass. I can't wait to be back there fucking you."_

_She moaned and released him from her mouth. "Mmm. I can't wait either."_

"_Sure you don't want someone else back there?" he teased her._

_She laughed. "Don't be a tool, Leon. I'm with you now. That's all that matters. And if it's any consolation, you're still my biggest lover ever, and the only man to date to make me scream." _

_He smiled, but he didn't believe her. She'd told him five and a half years ago that Steve made her scream __**and **__that Steve made her cry tears of joy. 'Oh, well. It's not the first time she's lied to me about him.' He pushed those thoughts away and focused on her tiny hand as it stroked his rigid length._

_Totally unaware yet again of her lover's inner turmoil, Claire went right back to pleasuring him with her tongue. Every time she took him deep in her mouth, he moaned. She would occasionally look up at him, with those beautiful shimmering blue-grey eyes, and his cock would twitch with need from that look. He was a slave to that pretty face, those stunning eyes, and when she looked at him like that, no other man she'd been with mattered anymore._

_She suddenly released him with a loud pop. She laid back on the bed and rubbed her sex a little then beckoned him with her finger. He pushed his boxer-briefs the rest of the way off and got onto the bed. He didn't even bother to remove the T-shirt. He stretched out on his back and stroked her hair before guiding her head back towards his cock. He wasn't ready for her to stop giving him head yet. She was very good at it. Better than he remembered in fact. He didn't let himself dwell on __**why **__she was so much better at fellatio than the last time she'd done it for him. But before her mouth sank down his length again, erasing all thought, the word 'practice' drifted across his mind._

_She sucked him hard and deep, using her hand to take up the slack. She stroked him up and down as she bobbed her head. Suddenly, she took him even deeper, until almost all of his nine inches was in her mouth. His face contorted with desire._

"_Holy fucking shit, Claire!"_

_She smiled around his shaft and sucked him faster as he grabbed her hair, simultaneously pulling it gently to guide her and moving it out of his way so he could watch her take all of him down her throat again and again. She then took him in her mouth to the root, and gagged on his cock. When he shivered with delight and groaned deep in his throat, she felt her sex tighten a little. She continued to suck him all the way up and down, but she did so very slowly._

_When she slowed down, he released his death grip on her hair then caressed her free hand where it rested on his thigh. She caressed his hand in return. They shared gentle touching for a few moments, but Claire didn't break rhythm from giving him head._

_As she continued to pleasure him, he slid his hand under her torso to massage her breasts. She moaned around his cock, making him groan from the feel of the vibration of her voice. _

"_Okay, that's enough. I'm ready, Baby," he gritted out from between clenched teeth. "You can stop."_

_She released his cock again. "Yeah?" she whispered while eyeing him seductively. "How do you want it?"_

"_I want you on your back first."_

_Leon moved to his knees and Claire rolled to her back. "Oh! Wait a minute, Leon. Can you close the blinds? My neighbors are nosy. We've been quiet so far, but if memory serves, we can get pretty loud. My neighbors' kid especially has been a little peep . . . and he has a telescope. I caught him watching me get dressed one day when I got out of the shower and didn't close the curtains."_

_He chuckled. "Little shit."_

_She smiled. "Not so little. Seventeen years old and almost as tall as you are. Scrawny though."_

"_Want me to pull the government agent shtick and pretend to arrest him for peeping?"_

"_Nah. Not at present. If it keeps being a problem though, I'll give you a call."_

"_Okay." He hopped off the bed and went to do as she'd asked. He closed all the various blinds and curtains on the windows that circled her bedroom. When he closed the blinds on the balcony door, he chuckled. _

"_What's funny?" she asked._

"_You were right. He was watching your windows. And considering the look I just saw on his face, I think I just gave him an eyeful of penis. He looked like he might puke."_

_Claire burst out laughing. "That'll show him!" _

_Leon walked back over to the bedside and opened her nightstand drawer. He sifted through the 'Claire junk' in search of a condom. What he found instead made him laugh his ass off._

"_**Now **__what's funny?"_

"_What the hell is this?" he asked while still laughing. He pulled a Y-shaped pink vibrator out of the drawer. One of the shafts that made up the arms of the 'Y' was about six inches long and about two inches thick. Plus, it was molded in the shape of a cock. The second arm of the Y was thinner and shaped like a pyramid of beads that got smaller the higher up the pyramid. The base of the Y seemed to encase the vibration mechanism._

"_Mind your goddamn business!" She reached up to grab it from him, but he held his hand far up out of her reach. "Hey! Give it!"_

_He shook his head in amusement. "Not until you tell me why it's got a second appendage on it that's so close to the first one." Her face went bright pink. She lowered her gaze and muttered something that he couldn't quite make out. "I'm sorry, what? Did you say the little one's for rain?"_

_She sighed. "No," she said a lot clearer. "I said the little one's for anal. It's a double penetration vibe."_

_His eyes widened again. He snapped his head up to look at the sex toy, and then whipped his head back down to stare at her face, his arms dropping to his sides dejectedly. _

_"You've been letting guys fuck you in the ass? And in tag teams?"_

_She frowned and snatched the vibrator while he was distracted. "No, Asshole! I was curious, so I bought the vibrator! I never did anal with one guy, let alone two! Just with this thing!" She looked at the toy. "The littler part feels like anal beads."_

_He blinked in shock a few times, but then he smiled seductively. "Did you like it?"_

_She looked surprised. She thought he'd be disgusted. "Well . . . kind of, yeah."_

_He smiled and kissed her warmly. "Good to know."_

_She chuckled. "If you think I'll let you do __**that **__tonight with something thicker than the little side of this dildo, you can think again. I wanted to try it with the big side, but I keep chickening out." She eyed his cock suspiciously. It was definitely bigger._

_Leon caressed her cheek. "I wasn't asking. Just doing a little reconnaissance." He climbed back onto the bed. "I didn't see any condoms except two with old expiration dates. If you still want to, I don't have a problem with having sex with you without one. I trust you not to endanger me, and you know I'd never risk hurting you." _

_She smiled and nodded. "I've never had sex without a condom with anyone but you, either. It's fine for us to do it without one. Besides, it's like I said in Raccoon City. I wanna feel you, not latex."_

_He smiled a little. 'Well, at least that's one more thing I've got on Steve,' he thought. 'She might have liked sex with him more and loved him, but I got bareback sex, and two virginities, oral and vaginal, under my belt. And if I have my way, I'll have the third one too some day.' He looked down at the tiny puckered orifice that still remained untouched. 'But for now, it's Kennedy, three . . . Burnside, two.'_

"_Earth to Leon."_

_He startled out of his thoughts. "Uh . . . sorry."_

"_No problem. It's not exactly an insult to have you lost in thought drooling over my body."_

_Leon leaned down to kiss her and then knelt between Claire's legs, but he had trouble fitting his long legs in the space she had left for him. She scooted backwards to the foot of the bed so her head was at the edge. He followed and settled back between her legs. _

"_Much better, thank you," he told her. She nodded and lifted her legs, placing her thighs on top of his. He slid his hands under her hips and pulled her a little closer, then rubbed her slit, making sure that she was wet enough. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, and friction would probably insure that he did. To his relief, she was soaked. _

"_You're so wet, Baby."_

"_I know. That's your fault," she answered with a sultry little smile. "Now, shut up and do me already."_

_Never one to disobey her when she gave him that look, he immediately positioned himself at her womanhood and pushed his hips forward._

"_Ohhhhh, Leon," she whispered, closing her eyes in ecstasy._

"_Jesus, Claire. I forgot how tight you are."_

_She could only moan in reply as he gently penetrated deeper inside her. He grabbed her legs under her knees and began to thrust in and out of her. She moaned over and over as he gradually quickened his movements. _

_He was driving her crazy. She went from gripping the edge of the bed to rubbing her clit to fisting his t-shirt to kneading her breasts. She didn't know what to do with her hands, she just knew she needed to hold onto something for the ride he was giving her. She finally settled on gripping herself under her calves, holding her own legs apart for him. Since she was supporting her legs, he moved his hands to rest on top of her hips where they met her thighs. He massaged her gently and she sighed and smiled up into his eyes._

"_That's so nice, Leon. You always make me feel so good."_

_He returned her smile. He stopped thrusting and bent to kiss her. "I'm glad, Claire. All I've ever wanted was to make you feel good."_

_She grinned happily for a moment, but when he leaned forward a little and sank a little deeper inside her, her lips parted in a loud moan. She released her legs and gripped the edge of the bed with one hand and rubbed her clit furiously with the other. _

_Liking the way the change in position had affected her, he leaned even further forward and rested his fists on the bed on either side of her head. _

_As he loomed above her, she lifted her hand from her clit to his cheek, caressing his stubble while moaning almost continuously._

"_Feels good, Sweetheart?"_

"_Ohhhhh, God! It feels so good, Leon! Don't stop, Baby! Please don't stop!" He grabbed her left shoulder and her right side for leverage, and then pounded her hard. "Oh my fucking God!" she screamed. "Yes! Yes! YES! YES! OH, GOD!"_

_Leon felt chills run up his spine as he watched her toss her head back and forth in pure ecstasy. She started to grip him erratically with her inner muscles. She was cumming, he could feel it. He clenched his teeth, trying to stave off the start of his own orgasm. _

"_You cumming, Baby?" he gritted out._

"_OHHHHH . . . GOD! FUCK . . . YES!"_

_He leaned forward on his fists again, and once she stopped trembling with release, he stroked her hair and leaned down to kiss her. He kept thrusting, but much more slowly._

_She caressed his shoulders and his powerful arms. 'He's so muscular,' she thought. 'Does he even __**know **__how sexy he is?' _

_He settled back onto his knees and rubbed her thighs adoringly then gripped them and started to thrust harder and faster again._

_She fisted her hands into her hair and tilted her head up to watch him take her, just as she'd done once before in Atlantic City. 'God, I love watching that cock disappear inside me,' she mused as she licked her lips. He suddenly pounded her even harder. Her head collapsed back onto the bed and she stopped thinking so much._

_He watched mesmerized as her breasts bounced lightly. He wanted them to bounce harder. He gripped her waist and sped up the movement of his hips. He vaguely noticed her head drop back onto the mattress. He smiled at the sight of her heavy breasts jackknifing back and forth to the rhythm he had set. 'Before this night's over, I'm getting my dick between those things.'_

_Claire panted brokenly, eyes glazed over, her face flushed, a fine sheen of sweat on her brow and her breasts. She was so pretty when she was so horny. He didn't think he could take much more of watching her like that. But she fixed that issue for him. She slid backwards until his cock fell out of her body. She moved to face his groin and took him into her mouth again._

"_Mmmm," he moaned. He loved how it felt to be in her mouth. He would have to return the favor later. _

_She gave him head for a few minutes, guiding him down from his pinnacle, and then moved back to lying in front of him. "That better, Baby?" she asked._

"_Yeah. You could tell I was close to cumming?" _

_She nodded. "I could see it in your eyes."_

_He smiled. "Ready for more?" he asked as he caressed her slit with the head of his cock. _

"_Always," she whispered._

_He sank into her warmth. They both sighed. He went right back to moving hard and fast inside her. She moaned and gripped his left hand. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the ride for a while. Finally she said, "I thought you said you wanted to do it from behind."_

_He chuckled. "Getting bored with missionary?" She smiled and pretended to snore. He laughed harder. "That was subtle." He pulled out and rolled her onto her stomach. "Here you go, Whiny." He pulled her up to her hands and knees, stroked himself a few times and entered her again._

_As he penetrated her at a different angle, he stimulated her G spot in a way that made her shiver. "Ohhh. Thank you. That's so nice."_

_He smiled. "Harder?" She nodded. He spanked her a little and grabbed her hips. He pulled her forcefully back onto every thrust. The bed began to move back and forth with their movements. "Put your head down, Baby."_

_She laid her head on her arms and arched her back. "Like that?"_

_He slapped her ass again. "That's perfect."_

_He moved his pelvis even more forcefully. Her bed posts slammed into the wall over and over. Claire screamed rhythmically. She started to slam her hips back at him as she gripped her comforter for stability. "Leon! Please!"_

_He smirked and pulled out. He rolled her back to supine and started fucking her again. "Gonna do you so much harder like this, Baby."_

_She cried out and spread her legs. She let him stay in control for a while, enjoying another orgasm in the interim. When her body stopped trembling she spoke to him._

"_Lay down, Baby. Let me ride you for a while."_

_He smiled down at her. "Yeah?"_

"_Yeah." _

"_Okay." He bent forward to kiss her. He kept thrusting for a minute, and then moved away from her to lie back on the bed._

_She got up to her feet, teasing him with the view. When he reached up and spanked her for being naughty, she sighed and lowered herself above him, facing away from him. She lifted his cock and slid it up inside herself. She leaned forward and bounced up and down. She reached under her hips and stroked him while she rode him. "Feels good?"_

"_Yeah. Looks good, too." He squeezed each pons of her backside. "But it also makes me want to fuck your ass, though." She giggled and shook her head. He smiled. "I know. Not tonight. I'm just making an observation." He sucked his thumb and rubbed it in little circles over her anus. "Maybe someday, though?" he asked hopefully._

_She smiled over her shoulder at him. "It'll be waiting for you." Claire continued to work her hips and ass for him. Now it was __**his **__turn to moan almost constantly. He suddenly grabbed her hips and pushed her off him. He was trembling uncontrollably. She chuckled. "Trying not to cum?" He nodded._

_Once he had it together, she turned to face him and rode him again. This time, he gripped her breasts and met her thrust for thrust. He squeezed her breasts until he had her panting. Then he grabbed her and rolled her onto her back. He moved to straddle her chest, squished her breasts together, and forced his cock between them._

"_Oh my fucking God, Claire!" he exclaimed. _

_She crossed her arms under her breasts and lifted, forcing them together and making it easier for him to fuck them. "Mmmm," she muttered. "They're so soft and warm, aren't they, Sweetheart?"_

_He pulled away from her suddenly, panting. "I can't. You're gonna make me cum too soon." He moved down her body. "I need a break for a few minutes. I'm too stimulated."_

_He licked her clit in one big lap, then started sucking on it and fingering her wetness. She quickly became the one who was over-stimulated._

_When she started to shake, he got up from the bed and opened her nightstand. He took the vibrator out again. He knelt at the foot of the bed, then rubbed her sex with the toy. Once she began to grind against it, he eased it inside her. He moved it back and forth a few times, getting it wet with her juices, and then he turned it on. The thinner extension rubbed back and forth along her clit as the bigger arm vibrated inside her pussy. She sighed his name and shivered. He smiled at her innocently, pulled it out, and turned it clockwise, one-hundred eighty degrees. He then slid it back inside, easing the larger side into her wet heat and the beaded phallic extension into her anus._

"_FUCK!"_

_She thrust her hips up, her two orifices swallowing the toy over and over. Her eyes rolled back, her eyelids closed, and she rubbed her clit hard. _

_He watched her ride out her orgasm, panting so hard she thought her lungs would explode. She cried out a few four-letter words, stiffened, shook, and then went limp. She opened her eyes lazily and smiled at him. Her smile quickly faded when she saw the almost bestial look in his eyes. _

_He practically yanked the dildo out of her before throwing it across the room, still vibrating as it flew. He climbed back onto the bed and threw her legs back toward her head. He sank deep inside her and immediately began pounding. He made her hold her legs then placed his hands just under her breasts so they would bounce against his palms._

_She spread her legs into a split, wrapped her arms around his neck, and caressed his hair. He moved to lean down onto his forearms and kissed her. He rolled his hips slowly, grinding their pelvic bones together, her battered little clit caught in the crossfire._

"_LEON!"_

_He moaned and increased his thrusting speed again. He was close. So close._

_A moment later, his vision blurred and he spilled himself inside her. She screamed and followed close behind._

_He slapped her ass and she slapped his in return. He pulled out and then collapsed by her side on his stomach. She stretched out to his right and turned to look at him. The back of his head was so sweaty. His muscles strained at his t-shirt, even when he was this relaxed. When she looked at where his skin was visible right above the shirt, she could just make out the edge of the exit wound scar peaking out from under the collar of his t-shirt. She stretched his shirt collar open and kissed the scar on the back of his left shoulder that matched the one on the front. It was even uglier than the entry wound, as Leon's exit wound had been a mess. She traced the scar tissue with her fingertips, and then kissed it again before releasing her hold on his shirt. She blinked back tears. That scar brought back so many beautiful and painful memories._

_He lifted his head like it weighed a ton, turned to kiss her lips, and then plopped it back down, facing her this time. She smiled for his sake, stroking his hair out of his face, and kissing his lids as he let his eyes drift shut again. She sighed and plopped onto her back. _

_They lay there for a half hour, unable to move, unable to speak. Finally, Leon broke the silence. "That was fucking awesome, Baby."_

"_Yeah. From this end, too."_

_He opened his left eye a crack and smirked at her. _"_My dick's still pretty hard if you want another go."_

_She laughed. "Is it really?" He rolled onto his back, exposing himself. She smirked. "I guess it is."_

"_Want some more?"_

_Her eyes widened in disbelief. Finally, she answered, "Hell, yeah!" He grinned and rolled up onto his knees. "Not so fast. Off with the t-shirt. I wanna see the hot bod."_

_He smiled and nodded. He pealed his sweaty shirt up and off. She ran her fingertips across his chest, shining with sweat, the slick skin accentuating the bulging of the muscles beneath as he moved her into position under him. She traced the front, smaller shoulder scar. She ran her fingertips down onto his cock, and then down his left thigh. She peered at his leg, then her eyes widened. "Leon! What happened to your leg?"_

_He looked down at his thigh. He frowned. Claire had finally noticed the scar Ada gave him in Spain when she'd stabbed him to stop him from throttling her while he was under his Plaga's control. "It's nothing."_

"_But Leon, it looks like it was painful."_

_He stopped her hand from caressing the healed wound any longer. "It's just a scratch," he assured her, kissing her fingertips._

_She smirked and stroked his scarred cheek. She sighed. He kept getting scars. She hated the thought that one day one of those knife or bullet wounds would likely end him. "Okay, Mr. Macho. You don't want me to kiss it and make it feel better. I get it."_

_He chuckled. "Save the healing powers for yourself. You, my sweet, are gonna be sore as hell in the morning."_

"_Promise?"_

"_Oh, yeah. It's a promise."_

* * *

_As the first rays of dawn filtered through the slats of Claire's blinds, she and her lover lay quietly in bed, enjoying the afterglow of their final coupling of the night. He held her from behind in his strong arms, her tiny curvaceous, and as promised, very sore body nestled close to his long frame. He stroked her hair off her face and kissed her crown._

_"When did you get a cat?" she muttered against his arm._

_"Honey? I found her a year ago in an outbreak in New Jersey. She was just a kitten . . . all alone. The zombies had eaten her mother and the rest of the litter. I killed them before they could eat her too. Then she looked up at me with those sad little kitten eyes, and I had to take her with me."_

_Claire smiled. "That's so sweet, Baby." She caressed his bicep and kissed his forearm where it rested across her chest. "Why'd you name her Honey?"_

_"Because her fur is the color of warm honey." Claire kissed his arm again and turned her head to kiss his lips. He sighed into their kiss. Once they parted, he whispered, _"_God, I missed you, Claire."_

_She smiled. "I missed you, too." She turned over to face him fully. "I'm sorry for how I left things, Leon. You mean the world to me and you've always been good to me. You deserved better than the things I said to you. And for the record, I know you weren't responsible for Sherry's abduction. I should never have said that. I know you were a prisoner and you gave up your freedom to the government in exchange for her safety. And despite them not keeping her safe, you still kept your word to them because you're an honorable man."_

_He shook his head. "No, I didn't do it for them. I knew I'd have a better chance of finding her, of stopping Umbrella, from inside the special forces and secret service. And I'll __**never **__stop searching for her. Whatever condition I find her in, I promise you answers, Claire. I hope you know that I'll make this as right as I can for you."_

"_Yeah. I know. I always knew. You're a good man, Leon Kennedy. I'm so sorry I said otherwise." She swiped tears of shame and remorse from her eyes. _

_He pulled her a little tighter against him. "Don't cry, Baby. And thank you for saying that. I can't tell you the weight you just lifted off my heart knowing you never really blamed me about Sherry's abduction. It's been one of my greatest regrets."_

_She smiled and kissed him. "No regrets, Officer Kennedy. Remember?"_

_He smiled in return, as he always did when he was reminded of their first time, her first time. "Not anymore," he replied. His heart skipped a beat as he thought, 'None but Steve Burnside. I'll always regret that he won your heart where I couldn't.'_

_She snuggled into his embrace again. They were both quiet for a while. Leon knew it was a bad idea, but he was starting to muster up the urge to tell her again how he felt. It had caused an awkward moment for them the last time they were intimate. Still, he needed her to know what she meant to him. _

_He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I still love you, Claire. I hope you know that." She didn't answer, just like the last time. He sighed. "I guess you don't feel the same. Still in love with Steve, right?" Again, she didn't answer. "Claire, please say __**something**__." Still no answer. He furrowed his brow. "Claire?" _

_He looked down at her to find her fast asleep. _

_He smiled and kissed her tenderly. The corners of her mouth twitched, as if she were trying to smile in her sleep. He caressed her hair off her face and kissed her head. He pulled her tighter into his arms, closed his eyes, and joined her in sleep._

* * *

Leon was pulled abruptly from his thoughts of Claire when Chris loudly crunched some potato chips.

"Aww. How sweet."

Leon frowned. He'd been really getting into his memories of that night. It was the most amazing sex they'd had to date. And it must have really opened the emotional floodgates too, because they finally leveled with each other about nearly everything that had kept them apart. Everything but Steve, but he wasn't surprised about that.

They _had _however admitted to each other that night that they had not been exclusive since they'd parted almost six years before. Still at the end of that day and after a lot more sex, he asked her to once again become his girlfriend. She had said 'yes'. They'd been together, although almost completely long distance, ever since. He had fallen more and more in love with her everyday thereafter for giving him another chance, but even that wasn't the greatest part of that evening.

The thing that had freed his heart from its emotional prison . . . the thing she'd told him that mattered more than anything . . . she'd told him she didn't mean what she said to him about being to blame for losing Sherry.

He'd tried to give her equal relief. He told her that the women he'd slept with while they were apart weren't who he was sure she thought they were. They were all one-night-stands with women he met in bars. Not Angela. Not Ashley. Not Ada. He'd told her those three women meant nothing to him. He'd told her the women he'd actually fucked meant less than nothing to him and he'd always worn protection. He just needed to get laid from time to time, scratch an itch so he didn't die of a fatal case of blue balls. He had been afraid to feel too much for any woman after Claire. She said she was sorry. He laughed and said he wasn't. If he'd allowed anyone else into his heart, he might not have been free to be with her now.

Claire said it was the same for her, not letting anyone get too close and only having the occasional interlude to scratch an itch. The only difference was that she met the men while traveling for TerraSave. She also reassured him that although she had condoms in the nightstand, no man had ever shared her bed but him. And she also admitted the men were all one-night stands, too. She pointed out to him that, as he'd commented, the condoms were expired. And there were only six men but him that she _was _intimate with, and not always penetrated. She said she just needed her pipes blown out once a year or so. He laughed and said he knew all about them because Chris had told him every time she had a one-night stand. He'd hoped her brother had been lying, trying to get Leon to admit that he cared who Claire was sleeping with.

She'd said that Chris had a big fucking mouth.

Leon smirked at the memory of that last statement. Chris had a lot of nerve saying _Ark _was a blabbermouth. Chris was almost as bad. Leon smiled devilishly at his friend. He was gonna enjoy telling him about the last time they were together . . . or rather, the last time he was willing to tell him about.

"Yeah, so that was the fourth time. I took her to brunch later that morning. Funny thing is, that was our first date." Chris chuckled and said Leon did it all out of order. Leon shrugged. "Wanna hear about the last time? It involves you." Chris looked perplexed. Leon continued, "It was after you and I went on that mission you mentioned. The one from two years ago when I asked for your help after you'd recently lost Jill."


	6. Chapter 5: Brothers in Arms

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own_ Resident Evil _or any of the _RE _characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am. All other characters are my creations.

**Author's Notes: **Huh. Guess my muse found herself some action inspiration after all. Must be because she made me see _The Expendables_ this summer_. Awful_ movie. I loved it!

So, we're taking a break from the smut for one chapter for some good old fashioned RE violence and espionage. Nothing like sneaking around Umbrella facilities to get the blood boiling. By the way. There's use of a foreign language in this chapter . . . English. That's right, not American . . . English. And vulgar English slang, at that. Hope you can understand it all if you're from the States. If you're from England, I hope my grammar was okay. But since it's mostly vulgar, I think you'll grant me a pass.

~ Tani

P.S. All sign language is underlined.

* * *

**CHAPTER 5: Brothers-in-Arms**

_**Washington, D.C.: an office in Secret Service Headquarters**_

_RING!_

_Leon sighed and picked up the receiver on his office phone. "Agent Kennedy."_

"_Hi, Handsome." A sultry female voice drifted out of the phone earpiece._

"_Claire?"_

"_Uh huh."_

_He smiled. "Hey, Baby. How are you?"_

"_I'm okay. Holding up, you know?"_

_He sighed. "Yeah. I heard what happened to Jill. I'm so sorry I missed the memorial."_

_She smiled sadly. "It's okay, Sweetheart. Everyone knows you would have been there. You tried to get back from Tunisia."_

"_Thanks for understanding, Claire. I really did try. I hope Chris knows that. I mean, I adored Jill."_

"_Oh, Chris knows. All he said about you during the ceremony was that he wished you were there. Then he made me call you to see if you were okay. When you didn't answer the first couple times we called, he liked to have a fit."_

_Leon smiled. "Well, it's nice to be loved."_

"_Yeah. So anyway, Leon. I actually called for a specific reason. I have a favor to ask."_

"_What can I do you for?"_

_She giggled. "Don't make a promise you can't keep, Super Spy. You can't do me for a while yet. We're both too busy to visit each other." He chuckled. "Just teasing. Anyway, could you check on my brother for me? When I called him yesterday, he sounded . . . strange. You live close to each other, so it should be easier for you than it would be for me. And I already used up all my vacation time with TerraSave on Jill's memorial if I want the holidays off."_

_Leon leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, no problem. Ark said he and Bruce saw him a few nights ago coming out of a bar here in D.C. He said Chris looked wasted. To be honest, I was gonna check in on him anyway."_

_She sighed in relief. "Thanks, Baby. You're a great boyfriend." _

_This time, he smiled sadly. "No, if I were a __**great **__boyfriend, I'd have seen you some time in the last two years. I can't believe that I haven't physically been in the same place as you since we . . . reconciled two weeks after Harvardville."_

_She shook her head, even though he couldn't see her. "Sweetheart, we've __**both **__been busy since our . . . reconciliation." She giggled as memories of that night made her think naughty thoughts. "It's not just you who hasn't been available. But it's enough for me that we talk almost everyday."_

_He sighed. "It's not enough for me." _

"_Aw. That's sweet, Baby. Maybe I can get down to D.C. to visit you over Christmas and New Year's. I still haven't been to your condo. And I wanna meet Honey."_

_He smiled. "Maybe. Since you can get away from work, maybe I'll just have to find a way to come visit you instead . . . and __**before **__Christmas. Bruce and Fong can watch Honey for me. Besides, she's the jealous type. She tried to bite Emily the last time she visited."_

_Claire smiled. "Don't tease me, Leon."_

"_I'm not!" he said with a grin. "It's a promise. I __**will **__come see you. Okay?"_

_She closed her eyes, knowing it was a bad idea to believe him again. He'd made the promise to visit her before over the last two years, but there always seemed to be an outbreak to attend to, or an official to protect. That was the problem with dating the star quarterback of the Secret Service team. She wasn't the only one who needed him. _

_She sighed in defeat. "Okay, Leon. If you can make it, I'll be waiting." In the end, she knew that she'd wait for him forever if necessary._

_He smiled and opened his desk drawer. He took out a file and opened it on his lap. He stared at the photos inside. "Okay, Claire. I'll see you before Christmas. I have to go. Be careful out there, Baby."_

"_You, too."_

"_Always."_

_She made a kissing sound into the receiver. "Miss you."_

_He smiled. "I miss you, too."_

"_Bye, Leon."_

"_Bye, Baby."_

_They both hung up._

* * *

_A phone rang, and a man with light brown hair and light blue eyes answered. "Agent McGivern speaking," he said with a poorly hidden Southern twang._

"_Hey, Dead Aim. What's up?"_

"_Kennedy! You ol' sack o' cow pies! Is that you?"_

"_Yeah, man. How you been, Bruce? How's married life?"_

"_Aww, married life's great. Fong's pregnant with our second."_

"_Get outta here! Really? But I thought she said no more after she had such a painful labor with Mei-Ling. Your daughter's only two. Can't believe you convinced her to have another so soon."_

"_Yeah well, life sometimes throws a curve ball. This one was unplanned, but Fong's mellow about it. Plus she wants to give me a son, so it works out."_

"_It's a boy?"_

"_Yup. Bruce, Jr. He's due next summer."_

"_Awesome. Congratulations."_

"_Yeah. Nice to know the McGivern name'll carry on for at least one more generation." Bruce leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. "So, what's goin' on, Leon? Somethin' tells me this ain't just a social call."_

"_No, it's not actually. I was calling about Chris."_

_Bruce smiled. "Yeah, I reckoned I'd be hearin' from ya sooner or later. Whatcha need to know, Amigo?"_

"_What bar did you and Ark see him coming out of? Ark's out on assignment, and I want to go take care of this now. It's got Claire pretty upset."_

_Bruce chuckled. "Terry's Pub. Over on Dupont Circle."_

_Leon sighed. If Chris was there, he was good and drunk by now. Terry was a great guy, but his answer to all of life's problems was to encourage a guy to drink until he couldn't remember the problems anymore. _

"_Thanks, Bruce. Give my love to Fong and little Mei."_

"_Will do, Amigo. And watch yer ass with the big guy. He's even bigger'an I remember and he weren't none too friendly to me an' Ark when we offered 'im a ride home."_

"_Understood. Take it easy."_

"_You, too. And say 'hi' to that pretty li'l redhead o' yours for me."_

"_Will do. Oh! One last thing?"_

_"Yup?"_

_"Can you watch my cat for me over the holidays? I'm gonna try to get out to Cumberland to visit Claire."_

_Bruce sighed dejectedly. He hated letting down a friend. "No can do, Leon. Cat poop's got critters in it that pregnant women can't be around. Could make my son sick in the womb."_

_"Oh! Oh, well never mind. Sorry I asked, man."_

_"No problem, Amigo. Sorry I couldn't help. Try Rebecca. She loves cats."_

_"Okay. I'll do that. Thanks again, Bruce."_

_"Take it easy, Leon."_

_Both men hung up. Leon sighed. Bruce and Ark were the only Umbrella survivors who knew about Claire and Leon's relationship. Bruce was the polar opposite of Ark, so Leon didn't even need to ask if he'd told anyone, as he knew no one kept a secret better than McGivern. But Ark was another story. He still couldn't believe his best friend had only told Bruce in all these years. _

'_I'm shocked the whole affair hasn't been made into a movie of the week by now,' he mused to himself. _

_Leon got up from his desk, stretched, and grabbed his suit jacket from off the back of his chair. He put it on, and then picked up his briefcase. He placed the file folder he'd been looking at while on the phone with Claire inside his bag. He went to the coat hook behind his office door, and grabbed his long black winter coat. He put it on, picked up his briefcase, and headed out to find Chris. Talking to Rebecca about Honey would have to wait._

* * *

_Leon Kennedy walked into a dark, smoky drinking establishment at about two in the afternoon. The bartender nodded at him as Leon walked up to the bar. _

"_Hey, Terry."_

"_Leon! Well if it isn't my favorite Irish Catholic government agent! How's it hanging?" the red-haired barman asked in a thick Irish brogue._

"_To the left." Terry chuckled at the deadpan manner in which Leon delivered that dirty bit of T.M.I. "Where is he?"_

_Terry, knowing exactly to whom Leon was referring, pointed to a lone table in a particularly dark corner of the bar. Leon had gotten drunk on more than one occasion and relayed to Terry his feelings about Claire. Terry never said a word when Leon and Chris came into the bar together about Leon's relationship with his friend's sister. And it was a good thing, because now Chris often came into Terry's without Leon._

_Leon's gaze followed Terry's finger. He could just make out a hulking form hunched over the table, a large half-empty bottle of something brown stood in easy reach of the figure's hand._

_Leon sighed. "Does he even have a glass with that bottle?" Terry's eyes were sad as he shook his head 'no'. Leon closed his eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled through his nose. This was not going to be easy._

_He thanked Terry, bought a glass of Guinness, and made his way over to the small table in the corner . . . over to Chris._

"_Hey, Bro."_

"_Hrmm?"_

"_Chris. Look at me. It's Leon. It's your bro."_

_Chris lifted his head and turned a pair of bleary, blood-shot bluish-gray eyes on the blond agent. Leon was taken aback for a moment. They were Claire's eyes. It was always so weird for him to see the eyes he loved so much on a man's face._

"_Kenn'dy?" Chris slurred, drawing Leon out of his musings of Claire and back to the situation at hand._

"_Yeah, Man. It's Kennedy."_

_Chris sat up and looked around the room in confusion. "How . . . . Where'm I?"_

"_Terry's."_

_Chris looked over at the bar, saw the ginger-haired Irishman behind it, and nodded. "Oh. Righ'." He turned towards his bottle. He grabbed it, opened it, and upended it at his lips. Leon could now see clearly that it was Michael Collins Irish whiskey that Chris was taking to the head. That was some seriously hard stuff._

"_I really wish you wouldn't do that, Chris."_

_Chris drank for a few more seconds, slammed the bottle back onto the table, and frowned at Leon. "An' I really wis' you woul' min'yer own bussth'ness."_

"_Chris. Please. I need to talk to you."_

"_Go 'way, Rookie!"_

_Leon sighed. "Stop calling me that. Look, I know I missed the memorial ceremony. Claire said you'd asked about me. I'm sorry for not being there. I tried my best to get home. But I was stuck in an outbreak in north Africa with no exit strategy. I called Claire like I always do to say good-bye in case I didn't make it. She said there'd been an emergency and that I needed to get home right away. She wouldn't tell me what happened on the phone, but I immediately started to make my way home anyway. Then I lost my communicator. She said you tried calling me before I got a new one and that you were worried when I didn't answer. I'm so sorry I worried you. I heard about Jill while I was trying to escape. I got back as soon as I could. When I arrived in D.C., Ark and Carlos told me I'd already missed the memorial. And Ark told me that he and Bruce had seen you coming out of here . . . plastered." Leon dragged over an empty chair and sat down beside his friend. "Chris, talk to me. What you're doing to yourself isn't healthy. You'll be no good to the BSAA like this."_

"_FUCK THE BSAA!" Chris shouted, then he muttered, "They killed my Jilly."_

"_No, Jill sacrificed herself to save you. It wasn't the . . . ." _

_Chris reached out and pushed Leon hard. The younger man's chair scooted several feet away from Chris's table, and Leon had to jump quickly to his feet so that he didn't fall over with the chair. Terry's eyes widened, as did the eyes of the three men as inebriated as Chris who were also midday bar patrons. Terry started to come around the bar, but Leon put up a hand to halt him. _

"_You alright, Leon?" Terry asked hesitantly._

"_Yeah. I'm good. Trust me, that was a love tap coming from Chris." He cautiously moved his chair closer and sat down. "Chris . . . Chris . . . CHRISTOPHER! I AM TALKING TO YOU!" Chris looked at Leon again, frown still well in place. "Look, I know how you feel. When I thought Claire died in that explosion in Harvardville . . . . God! I can't even describe to you how I felt. Now, knowing what it felt like to lose her, I don't know what I would do if something happened to her for real." Chris's eyes narrowed, but Leon didn't notice. "But you gotta stop this. If not for your own well-being, do it for your Claire-Bear."_

"_Whadda you know 'bout Claire?" Chris asked suspiciously._

"_I know she's worried about you. She asked me to check on you."_

_Chris stared at Leon angrily for a while. Leon finally recognized the fury in his friend's face for what it was. And it was a good thing, too. A moment later, Chris shot a fist in Leon's direction. The more sober of the two men quickly subdued the more intoxicated._

"_Chris! What the hell's gotten into you?"_

"_You stay th'fuck 'way fr'm my sister!"_

"_Why? What did __**I**_ _do?"_

"_You know!"_

"_No, I don't know!"_

"_You . . . you . . . wha- . . . wha' was I sayin', Leon?"_

_Leon sighed. His friend was gone. There was no use reasoning with him when he was like this. "Sit down, Chris. I'll be right back." Chris sat without any further argument while Leon went back over to the bar. "Terry give me a pitcher of water, a glass, and a big cup of black coffee."_

"_One pitcher of water and one Irish coffee."_

_Leon rolled his eyes. "No, one __**black **__coffee, Smartass. Chris has had enough Irish whiskey for one day."_

_Terry chuckled. "Just checking to see if you're keeping on your toes, Kennedy."_

"_Yeah, yeah." Leon went back to the table. A minute later, Terry brought over a tray with what Leon had requested. He sat the pitcher, glass, and mug between Chris and Leon, and went back to the bar. Leon poured a tall glass of water. He placed it in front of Chris and sighed. _

'_This might take a while,' he thought. He put in a call to Hunnigan. "I'm taking the rest of the day off." He smiled sadly at his 'Bro'. "Family emergency," he told her._

* * *

_After forcing caffeine and fluids down his throat for over an hour, and several trips to the rest room, Chris Redfield was feeling pretty sober. Shitty, and hung-over, but he was at least thinking clearly._

"_Alright. I'm not drunk anymore. Now, what do you want?" he asked testily._

"_Two things."_

"_Fine. Name them then get out."_

_Leon smirked. "First, I want you to tell your sister you're alright. Rumors of your behavior have gotten back to her in Cumberland, and they're upsetting her." He pulled his cell out of his pocket, dialed a number, and then held the phone out to Chris. "Here." _

_Chris sighed and took the phone. Claire picked up after three rings._

"_Leon?" Chris didn't say anything at first. He closed his eyes and sighed. She sounded so worried. He would never upset her on purpose. He didn't know what to say having done it by accident. Before he could get a word out though, she spoke again, sounding even more concerned . . . but not for him. "Leon? Sweetheart? What's wrong? Why aren't you answering me?"_

_Chris made a strange face. 'Sweetheart?' He looked at Leon out the corner of his eye. His friend was sipping a cup of coffee of his own. Chris rolled his eyes and shook his head. 'Their damn partnership again. Get your head outta the gutter, Redfield. It's not like that, and you know it. Claire just wishes it were.' He turned his attention back to the phone. "Hey, Claire-Bear."_

"_Chris? Hi! I . . . um, wait. What are you doing with Leon's phone?"_

"_Rookie came to visit me. Said I should call and check in with you."_

_She smiled. "Is he there?"_

"_Yeah, he's here."_

"_Okay. How are you, Big Brother?"_

"_I'm alright. How are you?"_

"_Worried about my brother."_

_He sighed. "I'm sorry. I really am okay."_

"_No, you're drunk. You're slurring your words."_

_Chris winced. "Uh . . . sorry. I was just throwing a few back."_

_She sighed heavily. _"_In the middle of the day, Chris?"_

_He ran a hand over his buzzcut. "Um. Yes."_

_Claire sighed. "Christopher Michael Redfield . . . do you think you are honoring Jillian's memory by drinking yourself to death? Huh? You think she sacrificed her life to save yours so you could throw it away a few weeks later?"_

"_But Claire . . ."_

_Leon sputtered his coffee when he suddenly heard Claire's shouted reply coming out of his phone. "NO 'BUTS', GODAMMIT! NOW YOU GET YOUR SORRY ASS TO VISIT ME IN MARYLAND BEFORE GROUNDHOG'S DAY! AND YOU BETTER BE HERE! 'CAUSE IF I HAVE TO COME ALL THE WAY DOWN TO D.C. JUST TO FIND YOUR SORRY ASS, I'M RIPPING YOUR BALLS OFF AND YOU WON'T SEE THEM AGAIN FOR SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER!"_

_Chris frowned at Leon, who had started to laugh. "Fine. Before Groundhog's Day. I promise."_

"_Good. Now, I love you."_

"_I love you, too."_

"_Okay. Put Leon on."_

_Chris handed Leon the phone, mouthed the word 'traitor' and slapped the chuckling Secret Service agent in the back of the head. Leon shrugged and took the phone. "Claire?"_

"_Hi, Leon. I just wanted to say thank you for finding him and trying to sober him up. He's not baseline, but I imagine he was probably much worse when you found him."_

"_Yeah, he was pretty fucked up."_

_She smiled sadly. "Yeah. He does this when his world falls apart. He did it when our parents died. He was only nineteen, but he emptied our dad's liquor cabinet in under three days. He ended up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. He did it again when he was dishonorably discharged from the Air Force three years later, and he told me he did it after the original Spencer Mansion encounter where all the S.T.A.R.S. operatives were killed and Wesker proved to be the traitor who sent them all to their deaths. You know, up until then, Chris looked up to Wesker." She sighed. "I'm not surprised he's doing it again. I think Chris was in love with Jill. He was afraid to lose what they already had, so he never pursued it. But he said something at the memorial that made me think he regrets that now."_

_Leon studied Chris, who was nursing a glass of water and a bitter scowl. "I see. Well, I guess I know how that feels."_

_Claire giggled. "Tell me about it." She whispered, "Can Chris hear me?"_

"_No."_

"_Then let me tell you what I intend to do to you if you come and visit me over Christmas."_

"_When, not if."_

"_That remains to be seen, Agent Kennedy."_

_He sighed then changed the subject. He knew he'd promised before and broken his word. He was determined not to do that again. "What were you saying you wanted to do?"_

_Leon stared at Chris and tried to gauge whether his friend could read on his face the nature of his conversation with the man's little sister. Claire's descriptions were beyond graphic, and by the time she was done, Leon was sporting a fairly large hard-on. Leon balanced the cell phone between his ear and his shoulder and removed his overcoat. He sat the coat in his lap, hoping his Claire-induced excitement would eventually pass. _

_Chris smirked at Leon as he watched his friend getting more comfortable. He snickered and whispered, "She can talk, can't she?"_

_Leon smirked but didn't answer him. Instead, he cut Claire off in the midst of a rather vivid description of how flexible she could be when she really wanted. "Listen, Claire. I gotta go."_

_She chuckled seductively. "Aww. Am I being too __**hard-on **__you?"_

"_More than you know."_

"_Mmm. Thanks for the imagery. You might want to hide that from my brother, though."_

"_Way ahead of you."_

_She giggled again. "That's my hero."_

_Leon's face split in a warm smile. God, he loved this woman. "I'll talk to you later, Claire. And don't worry. I'll make sure he gets home safely. "_

"_I know you will. Bye, Baby. I can't wait to see you."_

"_Same here. Bye, Claire."_

_Leon hit the END button and turned to face Chris. Chris was smirking. "She's got you wrapped around her little finger and you're not even a couple. Pretty pathetic, Rookie. Woman shouldn't exert that much control over a man she's not even banging."_

_Leon smirked and shook his head. Chris was a fine one to talk. Look at the control Jill had over __**him **__from the grave. He sighed. He certainly wasn't going to say something __**that **__insensitive out loud. Still, he refused to be the butt of Chris's jokes . . . especially since he actually __**was **__banging Claire. Not that he planned to say __**that **__out loud either. _

"_Claire is a close friend, Musclehead. She asked me to check on her brother, and I have." Leon reached under the table and grabbed his briefcase. He opened it and pulled out the same file he'd been reading earlier in his office while on the phone with Claire. "Now, for the second thing I want from you." He placed the file in front of Chris. _

_Chris looked confused. He stared down at the file folder, stamped with the seal of the President of the United States, marked confidential, and addressed to the attention of Special Agent Leon S. Kennedy. "What is this?"_

_Leon drained the last of his coffee before answering. "Open it and see."_

_Chris did so, quietly reading the contents to himself while Leon spoke to Ingrid Hunnigan on his replacement communicator. She called with a question regarding the paperwork Leon had just completed before Claire had called his office._

_After about ten minutes, Leon ended his transmission to Hunnigan, and Chris looked up at him with an expression of awe. "Is this information sound?" _

_Leon nodded. "It's golden." _

_Chris looked at two photos paper-clipped to the inside of the folder. "And the target? Can you guarantee your ability to acquire this target?" _

"_Yes. Under the right circumstances, I can guarantee the safe recovery of the target." He folded his hands on the table, taking as passive a posture and body language as he could muster. It had been his experience that convincing someone to help you was damn near impossible if you carried yourself with too much confidence. "Chris, I have a proposition for you. The President is backing this mission personally, as a favor to me. I have the latest technology and weaponry at my disposal. But I can't do it alone. This mission is a two-man job. With your help though, I know it can be done."_

_Chris stared at Leon for a little while, but then his eyes looked sad. "Take Ark." _

_Leon shook his head. "Ark's out of the country on assignment." _

"_Then take Bruce." _

_Leon sighed. "I don't want Thompson, and I don't want McGivern. And before you say it, I don't want Olivera or Coen, either. And Burton's retired from active service and is only doing computer espionage. That's how we got this intel, by the way . . . from Barry. Plus, he doesn't trust working with me in the field ever since he did that mission on that cruise ship. Did he tell you about that?" Chris nodded and sighed. Barry had told him repeatedly not to trust Leon. "Apparently, there was a B.O.W. posing as me onboard. It tried to kill him as they were escaping. It actually __**did **__kill that little girl he'd rescued. Uh, Lucia I think her name was. His oldest daughter was her age at the time. Barry's kind of eyeballed me funny ever since, even though I keep telling him I was never there and never worked for that anti-terrorist unit he moonlighted with." Leon shook his head. How long had that thing pretended to be him with Barry's group? He sighed. At least six months. No wonder Barry didn't trust him. He probably thought he was __**still **__a doppelganger. "Look, it doesn't matter anyway. For this mission, I need the best. I need a Redfield." _

"_Then take Claire." _

_Leon frowned. "That's not even close to funny. Claire may be awesome, but she's also still a civilian. I'd never intentionally take your sister into danger." _

_Chris sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. Sorry about that." He stared down at his hands for a while, and then spoke. "Leon, I appreciate that your high opinion of me hasn_'_t faltered since the . . . the accident . . . with Jill, really I do, but I'm not the best. My recent track record proves it . . . that I'm not only far from being the best, but that I'll only get you or the target killed . . . or both. I'm sure that'll go over __**great **__with Claire." _

_Leon smiled. "Claire doesn't know about this." Chris looked up at Leon again, shocked. "Look, Chris. Things have sometimes been . . . difficult in my . . . what do you always call it? Oh yeah . . . my 'partnership' with your sister. This mission is something I need to do to make things right between us. To make things right for her. It's a big part of the reason I'm so securely wrapped around her little finger. I have regrets . . . about this." _

"_This had nothing to do with you, Leon. Claire and the target just . . ." _

"_I know. Claire and the target share a bond that I . . . that I can never . . . well . . . ." He sighed. "Look, I just want her to be happy. Maybe if I had been there like I told her I would, the target wouldn't have been taken from her. We've always thought the target was dead, but Barry's intel shows the target to be very much alive. If I can acquire the target unharmed, I think your sister and I may be able to have closure on our past issues. Move on with our lives." _

_Chris smiled sadly at his friend. Did __**Leon **__have a thing for Claire? He knew Claire had a thing for him, but he never thought it was mutual. As far as he was concerned, Leon was hung up on Ada, and was probably fucking Angela. This certainly was an interesting development. He smirked. And was Leon jealous of the relationship Claire had shared with the target? He decided to test his theory. Chris stared at Leon for a while, then he looked down at the photos and touched the face in the older, more faded of the two. He sighed. "So young in this one." He then picked up the more recent picture. "And so well-built and attractive now." _

_Leon rolled his eyes. "No shit. I'm not so thrilled about that." _

_Chris looked up at Leon, and then started to laugh. Leon was not happy at all about how the target had matured. He was sure it would put a smile on Claire's face, but her best friend sure wasn't liking it. Chris was right. Leon was jealous. He obviously cared about the girl a lot. He didn't like being second best in her heart, but he was still willing to risk his life to reunite them. 'At least this ought to be interesting when these three get together in the same room.'_

_Leon gave a chuckling Christopher his middle finger and said, "So what do you say, Bro? You in?" _

_Chris looked down at the photos, then thought about how Leon was right that this would make his sister happy. Finally, he looked at his brother-in-arms, his sister's best friend. He'd been such a big part of Claire's life, and had kept her safe more than once. He'd always wanted to do something for Leon to show him how much he appreciated his role in the life of his closest living relative. And in this case, he could help his sister, too. Win-win situation. _

_Chris poured a glass of water, downed the whole thing, and slammed his glass on the table. _

"_Okay, Rookie. I'm in."_

* * *

_**Just outside a small Austrian town four kilometers east of the German border**_

_A bright yellow customized H2 hummer with flames on the hood, mud on the tires and Guns n' Roses blaring on the suped up sound system barreled down the road toward a small Austrian hamlet. Drunken singing to the tune of "Paradise City" split the quiet air around the sleepy little town. Only about one hundred people lived there at that time, and all of them could hear the obnoxious music of their unwanted visitors. It had become a common occurrence. English speaking tourists were always visiting their town, much to the displeasure of the residents._

_As the loud rock song ended, the driver of the hummer howled. He was a tall man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with red inner lining, the name and logo of the Arsenal Football Club, one of England's most popular soccer teams, emblazoned across his chest. His hair was covered by a red bandana tied Hulk Hogan style on top of his head._

_The man riding shotgun was a couple inches shorter than his companion, but still respectably tall as English chaps went. He was wearing a V-neck sweatshirt and a backwards baseball cap, both in aubergine, and both with the emblem for Oxford University's rugby team and the name of the school spelled out in white. When his friend let loose with a howl, he just laughed and took a swig of the last of his beer._

"_Oy! Those Yanks sure can warble a tune, eh?" he asked his friend before helping himself to another pint of Beamish Stout from the keg the pair were keeping in the back of the hummer. He let the froth settle and then drank half the pint in one go. _

_The driver chuckled. "That they can, Mate." He looked up out the top of the windscreen when he heard a loud sound overhead. It looked like a military helicopter with U.S. flags. "They make right smart choppers, too." _

_His friend sputtered his drink. Unlike in America where 'chopper' only meant helicopter, motorcycle, or teeth, in England, it was also one of the many vulgar slang words the British used to describe a man's penis. "Chopper!" the man in the passenger seat laughed. "You like American __**choppers**__, Mate?"_

_His friend chuckled. "Stifle it, Git!" He looked at the helicopter again. It had slowed down considerably. "Looks like they're planning on doin' a bit o' abbin'." 'Abbing' was a British slang word derived from the German word 'abseilen' which means 'to rope down'. What was usually called 'rappelling' in American English was referred to as 'abseiling' or 'abbing' in the Queen's English. Sure enough, the American helicopter stopped in a hover over an open field and two men, one blond and one brunette, rappelled down from the chopper and ran off into the forest. Both men were heavily armed._

"_Cor!" the shorter man muttered. "Whaddya reckon they're on about?"_

"_Dunno, Mate. Dunno as I much care." The driver kept along the road and gave the helicopter and its American passengers only one moment more as the focus of their conversation. "S'pose the dad o' that pretty li'l bird you were chattin' up back in Munich might come after you wit' a gun like that one."_

_The shorter man made a rude sound. "Pretty my arse! She was all fur coat an' no knickers, Mate! Aviation blonde! Dunno why I was so taken! I musta been cabbaged! Bleedin' beer goggles!"_

"_You do fancy th'amber nectar." He nodded toward the remains of the pint his friend was holding. _

_"Always beer o'clock in my reckonin'."_

_"Yeah. Right, Mate." He took a very curvy turn in silence, and then started in on his friend about the German girl again. "Now then . . . why're you havin' an eppy about that bird, Old Chap? Callin' her all fur coat an' no knickers. Sounds like a cop-out, Mate . . . like __**someone's **__all mouth and no trousers. You call 'er an Aviation blonde with a black box, but I ken only ways you could know that is if you had a peek at 'er bearded clam. Maybe tried at givin' 'er an Aussie kiss, Mate? Eh? You and that bit o' rough make the beast wit' two backs? Part her curtains wit' yer bayonet, did you? Beat your bollocks on biffon's bridge?" He laughed harder and harder with each statement._

_The shorter man frowned at his friend and held up two fingers. "Put __**that **__in yer mouth and trousers, ya bloody wanker! I weren't nowhere __**near **__that hairy axe wound! I mighta fed the pony, flicked the bean a bit, and she mighta gobbled me Hampton wick and happy sack, but I don't get a lob on over slags like her!" _

_Although the gesture he used commonly represents 'victory' or peace in America, that's not what it means to the British. His friend's face distorted with rage._

"_Shut yer cake-hole, ya tosser! Don't you flash the V's at me, Mate! Yer mother ate me baby gravy and gave me a back scuttle!"_

_The shorter man looked genuinely distressed by the comment. "Hey, you're a bad egg for that! Don't talk about me mum that way. Mum loves you like a son."_

_The taller man gave a little snort of laughter. "Sorry, Mate. Didn't mean ta get on yer wick."_

"_Awright then." _

"_No hard feelings, Mate." He turned down a dirt road. "So . . . you saw that bird in the nuddy, did you?"_

_His friend rolled his eyes. "Yah, little good it did. She got aled up on alcopops. Ended up chattin' down the white telephone." He shook his head in disgust. "Stupid cow. Now, enough about that bag."_

"_More like baghead," the taller man replied. "She tried to sell me gak three times." They looked at each other seriously for a moment, and then both men started to laugh at their vulgar, drunken exchange at the expense of the vulgar, drunken, drug addict the shorter one had supposedly picked up the day before. _"_Or bag o' bones!"_

"_Ha! Right you are, Boyo! Barely had no chesticles, that one!" They laughed even harder. "Not like that French lass you was dancin' wit' in Deauville, Mate! She was bang-tidy, awright."_

"_Yeah, but she had a bloke already."_

"_That barcode you trompsed in the pub?"_

"_Yah. That's him."_

"_Ha! You kicked seven shades o' shite outta him. Wanker thought he was a fighter just 'cause he was wearin' a Newcastle United jersey! Bloody Barcodes always think they're bruisers!"_

"_Shoulda kept his yap shut. I told 'im like I told 'er, it was just a dance. Not my fault she were gaggin' for it. He shouldn'ta come at me all Bertie big bollocks. He hadda face like a bag o' spanners anyway. Couldn't keep a bird like that one for long."_

"_Agreed, Mate," the shorter man replied with a chuckle. He paused to pour himself another pint. "So, didya let 'er get 'er dannies on yer dangly-bits, then?"_

_He smirked. "Maybe a bit."_

_His friend laughed loudly. "That's me Mate, innit!" he shouted. "How'd you manage?"_

"_She were like the bird you got on wit'. Really into the devil's dandruff, that one. Got 'er a fix o' nose candy and ecky. Was easy-peasy wit' ol' yo-yo knickers after that."_

"_Cheeky bastard! She had a set o' diddies like a dead heat in a zeppelin race!" The shorter man put his pint between his knees and held his hands up in front of his chest to mimic a woman's large breasts._

"_Funny you should mention that," his friend replied. "Seein' as she took me on a diddy ride."_

"_Ha! Bloody brilliant! Got yerself a tit wank, what? She give a bit o' the easy pink, too?"_

"_Easy pink __**and **__difficult brown. Got her beak on me barse and banjo string, too."_

"_Bollocks! Pull the other one, Mate! You mighta got yer tally soaked in fanny batter, maybe she even licked your bell-end, but I don't ken you got yer end away!"_

"_Oy! It's true! You know she were an Essex Girl! You got eyes like a shithouse rat! I gave 'er back end me love length in the loo!"_

_They continued laughing at their shared male bravado and insulting exchange on the forms and vices of the women they'd met and been intimate with on their backpacking trip across Europe, as well as the ease with which they'd beaten up the men who'd argued with them, over women or football. Suddenly, the hummer stopped short. _

"_Oy!" the passenger shouted. "Why'd ya slam on th' anchors? You spilt me lager!"_

"_Look, Mate! See? It's like I told ya!"_

_The shorter man looked out the window and then began to laugh. "They got ankle-biters in this town?" The taller man nodded. "Cor! That's just vulgar!" he laughed._

_They were now stopped in front of one of the four signs that displayed the name of the proud little Austrian town they'd set out to visit. _

_FUCKING_

_In German, 'Fucking' is pronounced in such a way as to rhyme with the English word 'looking', but the spelling, not the pronunciation was why Fucking, Austria was such a popular attraction to English-speaking drunken college students and backpackers. And when they came, they were there to 'honor' the more vulgar pronunciation of the word's spelling. As imitation is considered the highest form of flattery, it is needless to say the many security cameras around Fucking meant to protect the town's signs had caught visitors to their quiet city engaging in some interesting acts._

_No wonder the Fuckingers hated English-speaking tourists so much. They rarely just came to enjoy the countryside._

_The two English-speakers currently annoying the locals tumbled out of their hummer, rolling with laughter. For the next few minutes, they posed in front of the sign, took pictures of each other humping the sign, and then took a joint photo, placing an expensive camera with a timer on the hood of their military-inspired vehicle, so they could both be in the rest of the photos. The video cameras that monitored the signs to deter tourists from vandalism caught a brief video of the taller of the two men pretending to hump the shorter man from behind when he bent down to get a water bottle out of his backpack. The shorter of the two men immediately tackled the other man to the ground and began throttling his friend. The taller friend just laughed until he had tears in his eyes._

_Eventually, the two men got up from the ground and walked back to their vehicle. _

"_Where'd you nick this Chelsea tractor? It's got some real muscle. I thought you were still trollin' about in that old banger."_

"_Nah. Sold it to some bloke in Cornwall a month back. Got an Archer for it."_

"G_ood show, Old Man!_ _Well, I like the ghetto blaster. Best way to listen to American rock music while breakin' the sound barrier."_

"_Petrolhead."_

"_Damn right!" the shorter man laughed. "Now, drop the hammer this time. You drive like my nan!"_

"_Bollocks!" _

"_What is it, Mate?"_

"_Gotta take a fuckin' piss!" the taller man said. "You made me laugh so hard I almost wet meself!"_

"_Belt yer yap, ya old cocker!" his friend laughed. "Think I saw a farmhouse over that way." The shorter man pointed east. "I should leave you there too, bleedin' git."_

"_Oh, you're just narked because the whole bloody town o' Fucking's got video o' me 'fucking' you up the arse._

_The two tourists got back into their vehicle, and tore out onto the road again. They made a very uncoordinated beeline for the farm in question. The town's constable watched them tear past several of the town's surveillance cameras. He sighed. It was like watching a video on how to get a D.U.I. _

_And why not? They had gone through almost an entire keg of beer just for the Fucking cameras alone._

_The humvee sped up the dirt road towards the farmhouse, this time blasting Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man'. When they reached the front of the building, they jumped out of their vehicle and put on their packs. _

"_Right then," the taller man said. "Let's have ourselves a butchers what's goin' on in there." They walked up the path to the house, but before they had made it within twenty meters of the structure, they were confronted by a man in faded blue coveralls, and a flannel shirt who came racing out of the front door. The man was yelling something at them in German._

"_What the blazes is 'e on about?" the shorter man asked the taller._

"_Dunno Deutsch, Mate. Beats the hell outta me."_

"_I should for what you done by that sign. Next time you try that I'll blow off in your face."_

"_Stop bein' a wee girl. Little bang never hurt ya. And if you float an air biscuit anywhere __**near **__my face, I'll box yer ears."_

_The shorter man punched the taller in the arm. "Box that, ya tosser!" They walked up to the Austrian man, both of them towering over him. "Ya got a khazi me mate can use?" the shorter tourist asked._

"_You are American?"_

"_Bite your tongue!" the taller man exclaimed irritably. "What are ya blinkered? Ya think every man who speaks English is a bloody Yank?"_

"_That's right! Don't you know the Queen's English when you 'ear it?"_

_The Austrian man frowned and narrowed his eyes. British hooligan tourists again. They were like cockroaches. He sighed. "We have none of this cozy you ask for, English. You go now."_

"_Cozy? You 'ear that, Ian?" the shorter friend asked._

_Ian laughed. "So I did, James. So I did." Ian, the taller man, strode over to the local. "Now look 'ere, my man. I mean to 'ave meself a Jimmy. I can do it inside or I can drop me Alans right 'ere, Mate! Now, where's yer lavvy?"_

"_No, lobbies, English! Go! Go away!"_

"_Don't get shirty!" yelled James, the shorter of the two trespassers. "He's just lookin' ta siphon the python."_

"_No! English, go away! You always do bad here! You make sex at road sign! You steal sign, and you always loud and stupid!"_

"_Cor! What's this tosser wafflin' on about?" James asked Ian in confusion._

"_Ever since the days o' Hitler, Brits been nickin' their street signs."_

_James frowned at the farmer. _"_Oy! Ya stupid twat! We ain't knocked off yer sign. We left 'er right where we found 'er! Me mate just wants to use the shitter!"_

"_No! No sheeter! You go now, English!" the man yelled._

"_Don't throw a wobbly, Mate! Fine! We'll clear off!" Ian said._

"_Go!"_

"_We're going!" James argued. "Quit yer whingin'!" _

_The Austrian native went back inside the farmhouse and slammed the door._

"_I thought you hadda waz, Mate," James said to Ian._

"_I do. Burstin', Boyo." Ian walked over to the side of the house and unzipped his pants. "I warned 'im."_

_James started to laugh. "Blimy! What a cracking idea! I think I'll have a wee, too!"_

_James stood by Ian's side, and both men began to relieve themselves of the by-product of all the beer they'd drank that day. Both men were laughing heartily as they urinated on the side of the Austrian farmhouse._

_Suddenly, a military helicopter with markings indicating the United States Department of Homeland Security flew overhead. Three figures in black jumped out of the aircraft this time, and deployed parachutes. When they landed they began yelling military jargon in American English. One of them had a Hispanic accent, one had a Southern accent, and the last one said almost nothing. He was the biggest though, and he had no sleeves. There was a huge tattoo down one of his arms. _

"_I'll be jiggered! __**More **__Yanks! What d'ya reckon __**that's **__about, Mate?" Ian asked James._

"_Bugger all if I know. It's rainin' buzzcuts today." They watched yet another group of U.S. soldiers run off into the trees. _

_"Ah well, back to business." Ian wrote his name in the snow by the side of the house. James chuckled as he read the pee monogram. Ian finished and shook off the last drops of urine. James wasn't even close to done. Ian raised a brow as his friend continued to relieve himself for almost a minute._

_James shrugged. "Shouldn'ta drank that last couple pints so quick." _

_Suddenly, five men with guns appeared behind the two friends. The gunmen were all wearing black jumpsuits with no discernible identification except for a small patch on the left chest that was shaped like an octagon with red and white alternating wedges. The guns were trained on both the trespassers, as the guards began yelling at them in German._

"_Bollocks!" Ian muttered. "Should we leg it, Mate?"_

_James shook his head vigorously. "Nah, Ian. They're narked about __**something**__." James finally gave his penis a shake and put it away. He then spoke to the men who surrounded them. "Look 'ere, Gents. We're sorry. If you want us to, we'll just go and let you finish what you're doin'. We'll come back some other time."_

_When the two friends tried to walk back to their vehicle, they heard the sound of several guns being cocked. They looked at each other and raised their hands._

_The guards yelled something at them in German. "I guess they want us to stay," Ian muttered._

_Ian looked frightened, but James just appeared to be annoyed. "Keep yer pecker up, Mate," he offered as encouragement to his friend._

_Ian made a rude noise. "That's what got me into this pickle in the first place. What I get for gettin' meself arse over tits. Thanks to me stupid todger, this holiday's gone all to cock."_

_The farmer from before came out of the house again. He walked up to the two men and smiled evilly. "I told you to leave," he said with an American accent. _

"_Are you a Yank? I thought you was local!" James shouted. "This is barmy! What the hell's goin' on?"_

"_Your worst nightmare," the 'farmer' replied. "Care to beg me for your lives, you Limey cretins?"_

_The two captives snickered at the man. 'American' was not the only thing they detected in his accent. This man was a very effeminate homosexual if ever there was one. The 'farmer' signaled at his men to bring the prisoners inside. As he signaled with a rather limp wrist, the two Brits laughed even more._

"_He's camp as a row o' pink tents, that one," Ian muttered to his friend. _

"_He's queer as a nine bob note!" James replied._

_They both chuckled. The 'farmer' turned to face them wearing an angry scowl. "You still haven't answered my question. Will you beg me for your life, Englishmen?"_

_The shorter man's chuckles died out. "Nah, Mate. No arse-lickers here." He watched how the man paced back and forth in what was supposed to be an intimidating stride, but really was just a slightly effeminate stroll. James continued, "Although, I think I see at least one arse-bandit." The two men finally fell out laughing, only held upright by the men who restrained them._

"_No suck ups, then?" the 'farmer' asked angrily. _

"_You 'ear that, James? He wants you to suck 'im up!" They laughed so hard there were tears in their eyes. _

"_Sorry, but I'd rather clutch a wank mag and do no one else but Rosie Palm and 'er five sisters for the rest o' me life afore goin' for a ride up __**yer **__marmite motorway, Nancy-boy!"_

"_Fine then! If you will not be beggars, how about traitors?" _

_Ian sputtered a laugh. "Did he say 'beggars' or 'buggers', Mate?" James laughed so hard he started to cough._

"_Shut up! You think that's funny? Well, how funny do you find this? What if I said the first one to ask to go free, we'll let go . . . and then only the other will die!"_

_James pulled to his feet and dragged his captors closer to the 'farmer'. He then spat in the man's face. "You're a daftie if you reckon we'd do that!"_

_Ian struggled against the men holding him, too. "Get knotted, ya fudge-nudger!" he added to James's protests. "We been bezzy mates since nursery school! I won't be doin' the dirty on me mate fer the likes o' you!"_

"_Fine then. Death for both of you it is. Come along." He turned away from them dismissively and began walking toward the house. "It's a shame, really. You're both such attractive specimens." He looked back and eyed them both up and down hungrily. "Such a waste." _

"_Uh . . . could ya quit lookin' at us like you want us to gobble yer meat, Farmer Fudge-Packer?"_

"_Yah. We don't eat meat. We're vagitarians." Both men started to chuckle again._

"_Very funny, British scum! But I'll be the one with the last laugh! When Erik is done with you, you'll __**wish **__the worst of this were letting us fuck you!" He smiled evilly at them. "Perhaps in the next life, you will know to stay clear of Umbrella research facilities."_

_Ian and James looked confused. "What're you rabbitin' on about? You do experiments with umbrellas 'ere?"_

"_It's been tickin' it down __**that **__much in Austria? I mean, it's a bit damp, yes, but I haven't seen a rain or snow cloud since we got 'ere. Brolly science sounds daft to me, Mate."_

_The 'farmer' frowned at them again, assuming they were teasing him like before. But when he noticed their expressions, he realized that they were serious. He sighed. "Stupid, ignorant, drunken English tourists."_

_The two backpackers were forced to wear their satchels, and escorted inside the house at gunpoint. Imagine their surprise when they found not the unassuming interior of a dilapidated farmhouse, but rather a white tiled modern military facility. _

_Ian's and James's jaws dropped. _

"_Bugger," Ian muttered. "We're up the swanny, Mate."_

"_Yah. We're shagged."_

_The phony farmer turned to one of the uniformed men. He said something to the man in German, then finished with, "We'll take them to the laboratory. Dr. Weissmuller hasn't had a fresh research volunteer in weeks. Call him and tell him we've got two for him. These idiot tourists will do nicely. They're both already in excellent shape. They must be athletes. Considering their behavior on surveillance videos throughout their journey here, no one will wonder what happened to them. Clearly, they were a Darwin Award waiting to happen." _

"_Aye, sir," the man in uniform replied in English but with a thick German accent._

_The farmer turned to Ian and James and smiled. "And now for the two of you . . . ."_

"_Hey, horses for courses, Mate! If you want us to go, we'll go!" Ian assured._

"_Yeah! We was just pissin' around, Old Man!" Ian frowned at James, as that reminder of why they were now in the stew wasn't likely to help their cause. James winced a bit. "Sorry, Mate. Poor phrasing. But ya gotta know we meant no harm!"_

"_It's a bit late for that, Smartass. I told you to leave before. But now, since Christopher Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy have been spotted rappelling into the area around this property with a team of American soldiers identified to possibly be Carlos Olivera, Bruce McGivern, and William Coen, we have no time to play games with the likes of you." He turned to the guard standing closest to him. "Use the tazer, then you and your men carry them down to the doctor's exam rooms." _

_That said, the 'farmer' went through a door to the side of the hallway and disappeared through it._

_The man who spoke to the farmer walked up to the two unfortunate young men and had his soldiers remove their backpacks. They set each pack on the ground. Ian and James immediately put their hands back up._

_As the guards began to lead the two prisoners to the end of the hall, the sound of gunshots could be heard in the distance outside the farmhouse._

"_Scheisse!" the head guard shouted. He pulled his radio, depressed the signal button, and yelled into it. "They are only a handful of American soldiers! Kill them!"_

_There were more sounds of fighting outside as Ian and James were led to a metal door with a keypad and a card swipe. The commanding guard pulled out a white card from his pocket. He entered a ten digit number into the keypad. He was just about to swipe the card when there was a crackle and a whine from his radio. A moment later, a frantic Austrian voice came screeching out of the communicator, begging in broken English for the lieutenant to answer._

"_Lieftenant_, s_ir! The Americans are dead! Repeat! We have fatally wounded targets identified by surveillance as Kennedy and Redfield! Their team has fled!"_

"_Good work, Hans! Return to the compound."_

"_But, sir . . . ."_

"_Now, Hans!"_

"_Sir, please! Is important!"_

_The lieutenant sighed. "Fine. What is it?"_

"_The Americans we killed, they were __**not **__Kennedy or Redfield!"_

"_WHAT? But that is impossible. We have intelligence that the two agents who pose the greatest threat to Umbrella's goals would be attacking this compound. Video surveillance has them abseilling into Fucking and then running off into the forest that surrounds this compound."_

"_Yes, but men from helicopter not them. Men from helicopter were doubles! Look like them, wear uniforms with their names, but not them! Real Kennedy and Redfield coming a different way!"_

_The lieutenant frowned. Two men, one tall and blond, one taller and brunette. He suddenly had a bad feeling. _

_Suddenly, he heard music coming from the direction of the outside of the farmhouse. A whisper of 'let the bodies hit the floor' repeated a few times. It suddenly became loud, blasting the way the rock music had been doing earlier when the British tourists . . . pulled . . . up . . . . _

"_Nein," he muttered before swallowing past the lump that had just formed in his throat. He slowly turned to face his prisoners, and found himself staring down the barrels of two Sig Sauer P226 pistols. _

"_Hand over the card," 'Ian' ordered, his face deadly serious, his accent now American._

_The lieutenant's hand shook as he handed the card to his former brunette prisoner, now captor, over the bodies of his men. All their throats had been slit, and their weapons lay in two neat piles on the floor near the two packs. These two foreigners had silently murdered six of his men, all of whom had guns, with a pair of small knives that must have been hidden on their persons, and then quietly divvied up the weapons. All in under a minute. More importantly, they both reeked of alcohol. What was their reaction time like when they were sober?_

_The radio blared to life again. "Sir! Fucking constable just call! They in big yellow jeep car! They taked pictures by west side Fucking sign! Video match pictures in Umbrella database!"_

'_James' smirked and said, also in an American accent, "Tell him we're here, and we'll kill you." He took off his backwards baseball cap and tossed it on the floor before pushing his freed dirty blond fringe back from where it had just fallen into his face._

'_Ian' tapped the radio with a Glock equipped with a silencer that he'd just pulled out of his pack. "Tell him to keep searching outside for Kennedy and Redfield. We're only gonna tell you once."_

_The lieutenant frowned. "Never."_

_Quicker than lightning, 'Ian' threw a small dagger he'd hidden in his palm right between the man's eyes. _

_'James' chuckled. "Not like we didn't warn him," he said. _

'_Ian' smirked as 'James' picked up the radio from the dead unit leader. He cleared his throat, pressed the on button, and shouted into the radio in German using a very accurate impersonation of the lieutenant's voice. The junior Umbrella operative said he would do as told and disconnected their signal._

_The two 'Brits' began to check the status of their spoils. They each pulled a white body armor suit from their bags. They re-dressed and armed themselves in white, including helmets that would fit tight to their faces. 'Ian' removed his red bandana before putting on his helmet. His hair was a brown buzz cut underneath. _

_They also pulled out guns that had been custom crafted out of steel sheathed in white fiberglass. They stowed all the weapons they'd confiscated from the dead guards in their packs. Then they took off their casual clothing, down to their underwear and packed that away as well. They dressed in the battle armor and helmets, holstered all the white guns, and each sheathed three large white daggers. 'James' spoke into his communicator within the helmet that completely hid his face. _

"_Check one, two. Please copy, 'Ian'."_

"_Copy that, 'James'. Check one, two."_

"_Copy that."_

"_You sure there's no cameras on this level?" 'Ian' asked his comrade. _

"_Affirmative," 'James' replied. "This lot were supposed to guard the door, so there was no need for cameras by the entryway."_

"_Understood." 'Ian' strapped a pure white collapsible baton to his belt. "Can't believe you had the battle gear custom made in white," 'Ian' said into his communicator while pulling on pure white gloves._

'_James' shrugged. "It's their own fault for being so predictable, always making their labs out of everything white they could find at Home Depot." Ian chuckled. "This just happens to be what camo looks like in an Umbrella lab."_

_They each tucked a white handcannon into a shoulder holster. They then pulled out a pure white semi-automatic assault rifle each and walked toward the infamous door to the lower levels. Lower levels that undoubtedly held a lab. A lab that reportedly housed their target._

"_The average human will still be able to see us."_

"_Yeah, but maybe not until it's too late. That split second can make all the difference sometimes. You know that. Camouflage isn't supposed to make you invisible, just harder to see. And besides, it's not humans we're wearing this for."_

'_Ian' nodded in understanding. It certainly hadn't helped things in the past charging into Umbrella's facilities full of zombies and monsters in black and gray uniforms that didn't protect the head. Now their battle suits would protect them, and the helmets dampened sound, whence the communicators. They could still be heard if they spoke above a normal speaking volume, but they could whisper softly and be fairly well muted. They weren't completely invisible or totally silent, but they were pretty damn close. And at least the security cameras wouldn't clearly be able to make them out as they moved through the facility. _

_"Right, then. Let's gen up, Mate," 'Ian' said with a chuckle, once again speaking in an urban British accent._

'_James' rolled his eyes at 'Ian' from under his helmet. "Knock it off, Bro. We're in. You can drop the cockney speak already. We're not gonna 'gen up'. We're going to infiltrate the lab and to procure the target." 'James' had already followed his own instructions, speaking with his native northern Ohio accent. _

'_Ian' chuckled at his friend's annoyance, but began speaking with his usual Connecticut native vernacular as per the request of 'James'. "Yeah, yeah, Party Poop. It worked, didn't it?"_

"_Shockingly, yes. This was a real stroke of genius on your part," 'James' said with a smirk. "Awfully nice of them to escort us in like this."_

"_Wasn't it though?" They both laughed. _

_Both men chuckled as 'Ian' entered the ten-digit number he had memorized from when the late lieutenant entered it, and then used the keycard he'd taken from the now dead lieutenant on the door's card-swipe. The red light by the door went out, and the bulb beside it flashed green. 'James', aka Leon S. Kennedy, opened the door for 'Ian', aka Christopher Redfield. _

"_After you, Bro."_

"_Why, thank you, Agent Kennedy."_

"_A pleasure, Agent Redfield." They both chuckled as they entered an elevator. "This is going over smoother than I anticipated."_

"_Oh, ye of little faith. You asked for my help, so trust I'll deliver." _

"_No, I had faith in __**you**__. I just didn't believe this crazy plan of yours would work. Big difference," Leon said sarcastically, causing his fellow operative to laugh. Leon pushed the only button available in the elevator. The door closed and the car began to descend underground. "I mean seriously, Christopher . . . 'let's just pull up to the front door and knock' I believe is how you put it in the briefing?"_

"_Yes, and send in two decoys with a more traditionally military appearance to stir things up." He sighed. "Wasn't in the plan that they should get themselves killed in our names though."_

"_I know. But they shouldn't have gotten so close to the house. Just close enough to be identified as us. That was their orders." Leon shook his head. "I guess I didn't train them well enough."_

_Chris patted Leon on the shoulder. "Don't put that on yourself. I know how you are about training new agents. It wasn't you. They just got overzealous about being on a mission with the great Agent Kennedy and the great Agent Redfield and got themselves dealt a bad hand. Not your fault they acted like star-struck fanboys in cosplay costumes instead of like well-trained soldiers."_

_Leon shook his head in amusement. "You and your fucking anime." He knew Chris was baiting him, just like he did when he announced their British tourist aliases to be 'James Bond' and 'Ian Fleming'. Leon being a poor man's James Bond was a running joke between the Redfield siblings. "Anyway, at least the other three doubles got away. Now then, great Agent Redfield, how'd you know about the whole sign stealing business?"_

_Chris started to laugh. "I was stationed in Germany back in my Air Force days. Made friends with a Brit named Nigel Wallace, on account of Redfield being a British name. He told me about how the town has four signs at the four roads that lead into Fucking. Well, once when we were drunk, we headed across the border and stole all four signs in one night. We're the reason they put up the surveillance cameras."_

_Leon sputtered out a laugh and had to lean against his friend for support. Finally, he gasped out between chuckles, "You're so fucking stupid!"_

_Chris laughed as well. "I'll have to show you my half of the spoils. I've got two signs at my place in D.C. You can have one if you want, as a souvenir of today."_

"_Awesome. Now then . . . game faces on."_

_Chris nodded. Both men shouldered their rifles as the elevator car slowed to a halt. The door slowly opened on a long, empty white hallway._

_Leon pointed his gun left and right, then exited the elevator. Chris did the same. They darted quietly down the hallway, light on their feet and almost silent as they moved, despite their heavy cache of weaponry. At the other end of the hallway was another door. Chris used the key pad and swiped the card again. This time, the door opened on a staircase. They took the stairs down four flights, and stopped outside the stairway exit door. The door had a round window so they could see that the coast was clear. They went in through the door at the fourth sub-basement level and closed the door behind them with a soft click. _

_There were ten doors on each side of the corridor, all with small round windows at eye level. Leon looked into the first window. He put up his hand and used sign language to tell Chris that it was an empty office. Chris looked in through the window of the door across the hall from the office. He signed, __"Office . . . one guard."_

_Leon nodded. They proceeded down the hall, peering in through each window and signing to each other what was inside. In the end, they passed twelve offices, two storage spaces, five examination rooms, and a staff lounge with snack machines. In the twenty total rooms, there were nine guards and six scientists scattered throughout. In three of the examination rooms, there were two women and a little boy of about six or seven, all of whom were being given physical exams. All three were bound with ropes on their wrists and were crying and pleading in German for freedom._

_At the end of the hallway, Leon and Chris used the keycard and card swipe. They entered another elevator and pressed for the sub-sub-basement on level D7. They were calm as they rode down below ground, but they both knew that the level they were about to enter was no cakewalk. It was where this facility kept its bio-organic weapons. It was also where their target was being held. After all, for all intents and purposes, the target was a B.O.W. too, just a weaker one with maintenance of normal human intelligence after reaching adulthood, if their source was to be believed. _

_And their source was infallible. Their source was Barry Burton._

_As they stood in the second unmonitored elevator, they were free to speak aloud again. "Well, this is it," Leon said. "Whatever happens, Chris, I want you to know that I appreciate that you came with me on this mission." _

"_Not a problem, Bro. Thanks for giving me something important to do. Maybe if we can get through this mission alive . . . well, then I suppose I might reconsider and stay with the BSAA after all."_

_Leon smiled and clapped his brother-in-arms on the shoulder. "We'll make it out alive. I have every faith that you'll have my back."_

_Chris looked at Leon through his helmet goggles. He thought of what it would be like if he __**didn't **__have Leon's back well enough . . . if he lost him the way he'd lost Jill. He thought of how his sister would feel just like he does now. Leon was to Claire as Jill was to Chris. He knew that Claire had strong feelings for the agent. He suspected Leon might feel some sort of attraction for her, but he doubted he felt the same way for her as she felt for him. Still, he knew his friend would do anything for his sister. This mission was proof enough of that. 'If something happens to Leon today . . . if I fail to protect him, it will destroy my Claire-Bear.' He looked at the elevator display with determination. D3 . . . D4 . . . D5 . . . . _

"_We're almost there," Leon commented._

"_Leon?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_On my life, I will get you out of here alive."_

_Leon turned toward his friend. "Chris, if I come home without you, Claire will fucking kill me." Chris chuckled. "Stop being such a downer," Leon continued. "We'll both be going home today, and the target will be with us."_

_Leon turned to face front again. Chris did the same. Beneath his helmet, he was smiling. "Maybe the three of us can grab a beer together." Chris could just feel Leon's hard, heated glare on the side of his face, even though he couldn't see his friend's expression through their armor. Chris taunted him some more, just for kicks. "Target's about old enough to drink by now, you know."_

"_Yeah, I know," Leon gritted out._

_Chris smirked. "Think Claire will notice how much older the target looks? I mean, they'll have __**so **__much more to talk about now that they're both adults." _

_Leon punched the side of his friend's helmet. "Don't be a dick, Chris." Chris chuckled and apologized half-heartedly._

_The elevator doors opened. The hallway before them was much wider and longer, still white-walled like the upper levels, but there was no exit across from the elevator. It was a dead end. There were a total of six doors lining the corridor this time, three on each side, but no windows were present to look inside any of them. There were only plaques above the doors to indicate what was inside. _

_Chris read the plaque over the first door on the left. __"G tyrant,"__ he signed to Leon._

_Leon read the door across from it. __"T-Veronica tyrant,"__ he signed to Chris._

_Chris frowned. __"Do you think the charges we set will kill them both?"_

_Leon shook his head. __"The explosion will likely just free them."_

_Chris sighed in disgust. They were going to have to take a personal hand in killing the tyrants. Barry hadn't known about such powerful B.O.W.'s being on the premises. They certainly weren't in his intelligence file on the facility. _

"_Okay. G first or T-Veronica first?"__ Chris signed._

_Leon shrugged. __"Flip a coin."_

_Chris flipped the bird instead, and Leon had to fight not to laugh out loud._

_Leon pointed to the left, to the door that led to the G tyrant. __"Alphabetical,"__ he signed._

_Chris nodded. He used the key card on the door and Leon pulled it open quickly. He was surprised to find not a tyrant, but a stairway. He and Chris started down the stairs, with Chris taking point. At the bottom of seven flights, there was a large set of blast doors. Both men shouldered their rifles. They each took a calming breath, and then Leon punched the 'open door' control. A roar sounded from behind the door. The two men rolled under the door before it could open all the way, and then Chris hit the CLOSE DOOR control inside._

_They immediately got back-to-back and trained their weapons around the room. It was a huge space, with animal bones and blood littered everywhere. Fortunately, the walls were still white enough for their camouflage to be at least partially effective. _

_**Un**__fortunately, their enemy already had its oversized eye on them, so their camo didn't actually matter._

_The G tyrant charged toward them from the nest of bones it had made in one corner of the room. Chris clasped his hands together and bent down. Leon put one foot on Chris's hands. Chris stared the monster down. "Wait for it . . . . Wait for it . . . . Now!" Chris launched Leon backwards into the air before diving out of the creature's path. Leon flipped over the monster's head and emptied his automatic rifle into its large eye while upside-down in mid-air. The giant eye popped in an explosion of pink and white goo. The tyrant roared in pain and stumbled backwards. _

_Leon dropped the empty gun while falling towards the ground. He landed on his hands then flipped onto his feet. The tyrant charged at him before he could stand up, but Chris ran up behind the creature and pumped its back full of hot lead from his semi-automatic. The monster turned and growled at him. _

_The tyrant swiped an arm at Chris, knocking him back several yards. Chris crashed into the blast door. He groaned and rolled to his feet. He stumbled off blindly to the side. _

"_Chris!" _

_Leon had spotted the tyrant charging at his friend again. Another hit like that first one would kill him. Leon pulled his handcannon, ran between Chris and the creature, and blasted the tyrant in the face until his gun clicked empty. The behemoth fell to the ground, unmoving._

_Chris leaned back against the wall. "Ow," he muttered._

"_You alright, Man?"_

"_Yeah. I'll be fine. But I'm gonna sue that bus driver that hit me."_

_Leon chuckled and clapped his friend on the left side of his back. Chris winced. "Oops. Sorry."_

_The BSAA's finest nodded. "Come on. Let's get the hell outta here. We still got the Veronica tyrant to take care of."_

_Leon gave a curt nod. The two men started for the door. They looked back over their shoulders at the monster. It was apparently dead. But Leon knew better. He held a hand up to stop Chris from opening the blast doors. _

"_What's wrong?"_

"_I don't like it. I've seen these fucking things come back to life too many times for comfort."_

_Chris rubbed his sore left shoulder. He was pretty sure his clavicle was fractured. "So what do you want to do?" _

_Leon pulled off his helmet and gave Chris a sly smile. "Come on. I got an idea."_

"_That should do it," Chris said as he got to his feet. "And for the record, you need therapy. This is a pretty sick thing to do to someone, even if that someone __**is **__a tyrant."_

_Leon chuckled and stood up from where he'd been kneeling on the floor. "Yeah, yeah, Party Poop." He mocked Chris's earlier statement to him. "You won't be saying that when it works."_

_Chris chuckled. "Yeah, it'll work alright . . . like lighting a candle with a flamethrower."_

_They went out through the blast door and closed it. They climbed the stairs quickly and then waited three flights up. After about a minute, they felt a rumble under their feet. Leon and Chris went back down the stairs. Chris opened the blast door again. A noxious plume of smoke drifted out, causing both men to cough. _

_When the smoke cleared, Leon hacked a bit, then said, "See? *cough cough* It worked."_

_Chris looked through the dark fumes and then started to laugh, also coughing intermittently. _

_It had worked indeed._

_The two agents had set five charges each with ten minutes on their timers then cut gouges into the flesh of the creature with their huge military blades. They shoved the ten bombs into the holes they had made all over the tyrant's body, and finally sealed the holes with duct tape._

_There wasn't enough of the tyrant left to fill a bucket, and the walls were now a very interesting shade of red and black. _

"_Seriously," Chris chuckled. "You got issues, Bro."_

_Leon smirked. "Well, that's not news. Hunnigan's been saying that for years."_

_They both laughed as they went up the stairs to the outer white hallway. They closed the door with the 'G tyrant' plaque, and it locked behind them. Chris looked up at the 'T-Veronica tyrant' plaque and sighed. __"Well, time to get the other half of my ass kicked off,"__ Chris signed._

_Leon smirked. __"I can go it alone if you want."_

_Chris shook his head. __"I am not giving you all the glory, Rookie."_

_Leon smiled. __"Come on, then."_

_Chris nodded and unlocked the door. This time, Leon took point on the way down the seven flights of stairs. _

* * *

_Twenty minutes later, Leon exited the T-Veronica tyrant's cell and limped to the next door. His right ankle was sprained pretty badly, but at least it didn't seem to be broken. That was more than he could say for his friend's clavicle. If it wasn't broken before, it certainly was now. Chris said he could hear the snap when the giant mutated bear had landed on him. _

_Apparently, the original human host of this T-Veronica inoculation was into koalas. Leon had almost suffocated in that damn pouch. __"Thank you for pulling me out of that thing. I was running out of air fast,"__ he signed to Chris._

_Chris patted Leon on the back with his good arm. __"We are even,"__ he signed, having to spell the words out one letter at a time since he could only use one hand. Chris's arm was now in a makeshift sling that Leon had fashioned. Leon had also wrapped his ankle to stabilize it. It wouldn't do them or the target any good if he couldn't run. _

_There was another rumble under their feet. This time, they didn't even bother to go back and look. Chris had definitely killed it. The explosion was just so the body wouldn't be salvageable to Umbrella's scientists._

_They each walked to the next door on the left and right of the corridor, the middle doors._

_Chris signed to Leon, __"What is a Plaga?"_

_Leon abruptly looked up at Chris's plaque. He frowned darkly and thought briefly of Ada Wong's head on a stake. __"You do not want to know,"__ he signed to Chris. Leon turned back over to the door he himself was standing in front of. __"What in the world is a Majini?"_

_Chris shrugged. __"Never heard of it. Think the blast will kill these B.O.W.'s?"_

_Leon cocked his head in thought. __"It will kill the Plagas for sure, but I do not know what a Majini is."__ He took the keycard from Chris and unlocked the door in front of him. He peaked inside at the Majini, and then quickly withdrew his head and slammed the door. He nodded. __"They look pretty horrible, but are still just the size of men."_

_Chris nodded. They each set a charge. Leon unlocked his door, opened it a crack, tossed in the bomb, and closed it again. He passed the key card back to Chris, and he did the same._

_They proceeded to the last set of doors to the sound of a rumble behind the two doors they'd just closed._

_Leon read the plaque before him. He cringed. _

_Chris read the plaque in front of him. He tapped Leon's shoulder frantically. Then signed to him when he got his attention._

"_Look."_

_Leon followed Chris's finger to where it pointed at the plaque above his head. The younger agent sighed in relief. _

"_Pay dirt,"__ he signed. __"But look over here."_

_Chris followed Leon to the other door. Leon couldn't see it, but his friend's eyes were like saucers behind his helmet. __"Okay,"__ Chris signed. __"So, now we have two targets."_

_Leon smiled and patted his friend gingerly on the uninjured shoulder. __"I knew you would have my back."_

_Chris pulled a small handheld device out of one of his side pockets. He wired it to the lock on the door in front of him. He turned to see that Leon was doing the same on the door in front of him. The two door locks clicked open at the same time._

"_Why did we not use the key card again?"__ Leon signed._

_Chris took his arm out of his sling to answer in a longer string of signs. __"Colonel Klink upstairs was just a grunt. He had access to the bio-organic weapons, but not the targets. They are the virus source materials, and too important to be trusted to a lowly lieutenant. If we used his card, it would have been denied and we would have caused the alarm to sound. We do not want to raise attention to ourselves, especially now that we are both injured. The best way to do this is in and out like the wind."_

_Leon nodded. __"That is why I am glad you are here."_

_Chris smiled behind his helmet and repositioned his arm into the sling. He opened his door as Leon opened the other. Leon walked into the room and then limped back out quickly. He closed the door abruptly, his hand shaking. _

"_You OK?"_

"_Yes. I just hope that the primary target looks better than the secondary target."_

"_Primary target intact,"__ Chris signed in response._

_Leon sighed in relief. 'Well that's one more nightmare I'll be having for the rest of my life,' he thought to himself. He walked into the room that Chris had just entered. He smiled sadly when he saw the primary target. He closed the door behind him, having gotten intelligence that there was a one minute delay on open doors in the sub-basement of this Umbrella facility. After that, the alarm would sound._

_Leon and Chris both took off their helmets. They stared at the cryogenic stasis tube before them. In a tall, silver cylinder with a glass front, a young naked adult floated, sleeping in suspension. There was a gurney off to the side of the tube with four restraints and rumpled bed sheets. Apparently, the target had gone into stasis unwillingly. _

_The file did not do the target justice. The young Umbrella captive had grown to be very attractive and almost perfectly formed over the years. They were still pretty short, but it didn't matter. Additional height could not have made the target more attractive. The target would already waylay the opposite sex as is. Although the target had an Umbrella virus dormant in their system, they had grown up from adolescence to adulthood with only just above normal human abilities, if the intel was accurate. And again, the informant was Barry Burton. _

_Chris shook himself from his awe of how their target had changed, going to the controls, and punching in the release code on the console. Leon got into position on the opposite side of the console. Chris used his teeth to pull off his right glove, while Leon removed his left. Both men were wearing a tighter latex glove underneath. Each glove had fingerprints formed into the tips. Leon's fingertips now reflected the prints of Dr. Erik Weissmuller, a left-handed scientist working for Umbrella who was also scientific director of this facility. Chris's fingertips were now graced by the prints of his right-handed former commander, Albert Wesker. _

_The two men counted down from five to one. After one, each man slammed his hand down on a fingerprint scanner and then pulled an adjacent lever. A green light flashed on the tank that held the target._

_It had worked._

_Leon continued to just watch in awe as the cold green fluid that engulfed the target began to drain away. Chris put a flash drive into the Umbrella computer and hacked the facility's files. Once he'd downloaded ten flash drives worth of intel, he returned to Leon's side._

"_I can't believe it, Chris," Leon said, speaking aloud for the first time since they'd fought the T-Veronica tyrant a few minutes before. "After all these years of searching. We found the target." He shook his head. "I never thought I'd really be able to do this for Claire."_

_Chris smiled and patted Leon on the shoulder. "Set the charges. We're shutting this place down."_

_Leon nodded and began doing as Chris said. _

_While his Bro was busy, Chris wrapped the target in the sheet from the gurney and lifted the groggy, confused young adult over his good shoulder. He figured that no matter which side Leon tried to carry the target, it would have hurt his ankle to do so. They couldn't afford for him to be any slower. Besides, it was better that the one of them with __**two **__good shooting arms take point._

_Once Leon had set the charges, they left the room. Leon went across the hall, looked in the other room at the secondary target, and sighed sadly. He walked in and took the necklace from around the dead young adult's neck. He walked to the door and tossed five charges into the room behind him. He looked down at the necklace for a moment, finally sighing and pocketing it. 'For Claire,' he thought. He looked back at the secondary target again. 'I'm sorry I couldn't save you,' he mused. 'Rest in peace.' He set another charge, placed it on the target's chest, crossed the target's arms so the bomb was held in both hands, and then closed the door behind him._

"_That is a waste of bombs,"__ Chris signed._

_Leon shook his head. __"Indulge me. I am insuring that an old friend gets to rest in peace."_

"_And the necklace?"_

"_I promised Claire that I would let her know what happened to the primary and secondary targets if I ever found them, no matter in what condition I found them."_

_Chris nodded. __"Hurry up then."_

_Once the charges were all set, Leon and Chris, with their initial target in tow, made their way to the elevator. They rode it up to the level with the twenty doors. Once they exited the elevator, Leon bashed in the controls with the butt of his handcannon._

_The two intruders put silencers on their guns. Next, they placed electronic locking mechanisms on all the doors except the ones with the scientists and Umbrella test subjects, so that none of the guards inside could escape. They took the three remaining rooms one by one. They shot the scientists in the head, and each of the three captives thanked them in tearful German. The two soldiers nodded and shushed the freed captives. _

_After leaving a few "gifts" for the soldiers locked in the other rooms, they made their way to the first elevator they had ridden, and took it up to ground level. They got off the elevator and broke the controls again. Leon took clothes for the target out of his bag and helped the target get dressed while Chris left another little present from each of them on the floor by the dead guards. Leon shouldered his own pack and grabbed the strap of Christopher's. Then the three Umbrella fugitives left the house, with the three freed hostages and the target in tow. Outside, they got into their hummer after Leon checked it for any traps or tampering. The two Austrian women and the target were placed in the back. The two injured heroes jumped in the front, and buckled themselves in. The little boy fell asleep curled up on Leon's lap. Chris gunned the engine, slammed his foot on the gas pedal, and raced quickly away from the house. _

* * *

_The 'farmer' and the scientist were lying naked together in a bedroom on the second floor of the three-story farmhouse. Erik Weissmuller had found working for Umbrella to be the only way he could still practice anatomy and virology once the university in Germany that he once worked for found out about his taste in more . . . masculine lovers._

"_Erik, I'm going to get something to drink. Can I bring you anything?"_

"_No, but I hope you are ready for more when you return," Erik replied in a very proper German accent._

_The 'farmer' smiled. He pulled on his boxers and padded down the stairs. He walked into the kitchen and poured himself a tall glass of carrot juice._

_As he left the kitchen, he absently took the route that sent him through the front hallway of the house. When he walked through the door, he was shocked to find the seven men he'd left with the two English prisoners dead. He dropped his glass. Suddenly, the sound of screaming guards could be heard through the radios of all the dead men. They were the guards he knew to be stationed in the lower levels. They were screaming about being trapped in the rooms they were in. They were shouting about bombs duct taped to the windows on the outside of the doors they were trapped behind. They were screaming that time was almost up._

_All of a sudden, the 'farmer' recognized a soft sound repeating as a background noise to the guards screaming. He searched the floor for the sound. Finally, he came to two small backpacks, which were of a similar style to the ones the British tourists had been carrying, only these one were pure white. He opened the zipper on one of the bags and looked inside._

_This was indeed the source of the sound he'd heard . . . the beeping sound._

_On several small timers with blocks of something clay-colored wired to them, was a countdown:_

_00:06 . . . . 00:05 . . . . 00:04 . . . . 00:03 . . . . 00:02 . . . . 00:01 . . . ._

_He closed his eyes. "Erik," he whispered._

'_00:01' was the last thing he would ever see. _

* * *

_When the hummer reached the German border, an explosion rocked the earth beneath its tires, probably because most of the blast was underground. Still a decent sized cloud of dust and flames still shot up into the sky at their backs._

_Leon and Chris looked into the back of the jeep. The target was asleep._

"_Mission accomplished," Chris said while driving toward the American Embassy in Munich. They had already dropped off the three missing Fuckingers with the constable. He was furious with the Umbrella researchers, but Leon and Chris flashed their badges and said it had been dealt with, and warned him that there would be an explosion._

"_Yeah," Leon replied. "And I couldn't have done it without your planning. Thanks, Bro."_

_Chris smirked and pulled up onto the road that led to Munich. _"_My pleasure."_

_They were silent for a few minutes, until Leon spoke again. "Chris?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Don't ever tell Claire the things I said about women and homosexuals as James."_

"_Oh . . . oh, __**God **__no! And don't ever tell her the things I said as Ian! Half of TerraSave is gay! She'd kill us!"_

_They nodded in agreement. _

_Neither man noticed the target smile a little in the depths of slumber._

* * *

Chris and Leon were both wool-gathering, reliving the memories of that day. They eventually smiled fraternally at each other and tapped water bottles in a toast.

"Seriously, Chris. Thanks for helping me on that mission."

Chris smiled. "No, thanks to _you_, Leon . . . for giving me something to do other than mourn Jill, lift weights, and be drunk."

Leon chuckled. "You were so wasted."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Now, get on with the story about you and Claire. I mean, not that I haven't enjoyed strolling down memory lane with you, but what's this have to do with you and Claire's most recent hoorah?"

Leon smiled. "Everything."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Thanks for indulging me. I've always wanted to use the town of Fucking, Austria in a story. It's pretty hilarious to someone as immature as I can be. Oh! And please excuse the rather liberal smattering of vulgar British slang, misogyny, and homophobia. Since drunken testosterone driven British hooligans tend to be the vandals that visit Fucking the most according to Wikipedia, I wrote Leon and Chris's cover story that way. And I know Brits aren't all like that. But those are the kind of Brits I needed Leon and Chris to be for the sake of my story. So, apologies to my British readers. And one love to my homosexual readers, but gay people can be villains, too. I thought the under story of how Erik Weissmuller was actually a German scientist who joined Umbrella because he was persecuted in his prior academic position in Germany for being gay was interesting. Sort of like selling your soul to the devil just to be able to live and be happy. So, no offense intended. They're not villains because they're gay. They're just villains. And clearly in love. In the farmer's last moments, his final thoughts were of his partner.

By the way, and as an explanation, the reason Chris and Leon were in character as Ian and James the entire time (other than my attempt at a little twist) is that Fucking has a lot of surveillance cameras, and my addition to that is that Umbrella has also hooked them up to detect sound. According to the internet, the town paid for the cameras to help catch tourists in the act of stealing signs or having sex in front of the signs. I thought it would be a nice touch to have the people of Fucking be unaware that Umbrella was monitoring their cameras. And the fictional constable was not a villain, by the way. He thought the farm was an innocent government sanctioned research facility. It was patriotism to Austria that caused him to cooperate with them in my story. Don't want to offend the Fuckingers any more than English speaking folks already have. ;-)

In any event, I hope this chapter was exciting enough and worth a laugh or two, and if there's anything in it that you don't understand . . . look it up like I did. LOL! No, really, being as I'm from Jersey myself (New Jersey in America, not Jersey in the English Channel), I had to look most of these terms up, too. Although my penchant for Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, and Guy Ritchie movies certainly didn't hurt. If you want, there's a great British to American dictionary at this link (sorry, have to spell it out - the website keeps deleting the link):

"www" dot "peevish" dot "co" dot "uk" slash "slang" (no quotation marks in web address)

I think everything I used is in there. This was a great help to me in the writing process. And for those who don't know, "schiesse" is German for "shit", and "nein" is German for "no". Hope that helps, too.

Ta for now, Mates! See you in Chapter 6!


	7. Chapter 6: Christmas Promises

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

**Author's Notes: **We have reached the last of the five lemons from Claire and Leon's past. So, I covered the four most popular lemon themes from the game canon: (1) the S.T.A.R.S. office, (2) after they are on the run with Sherry in tow, (3) after Claire returns from Rockfort and Antarctica, (4) after Harvardville. Now I am using a different scenario that I haven't seen, but I've always thought would make for a nice lemon. I broke it up into two parts, since it spans two visits from Leon to Claire's house. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**CHAPTER 6: Christmas Promises**

_**Cumberland, Maryland: a quaint suburban household on the East Side**_

_RING!_

_Claire sighed. It was Christmas Eve and she hadn't heard a word from Leon. She was certain that he was going to break his promise of coming to visit her at Christmas. Because of this, she had been pretty testy for the past few days._

_RING!_

_Therefore, when the phone began to ring, she was less than pleasant to the person who called her when she answered it._

_RING!_

_She snatched the phone up and demanded into the mouthpiece. "What the fuck do you want?"_

_"Hi, Baby."_

_She sighed again. So, he'd finally called with an excuse. Big shocker. "Hello, Leon," she replied tersely. "Calling to cancel I take it?"_

_He chuckled. "That why you sound so pissed?"_

_She frowned. "I don't think it's funny. And yes, that's why I'm pissed. Not that I should be surprised at all since you __**always **__cancel on me." She paused in mid-tirade to listen to him on the other end of the line. She frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Fucker! Will you stop laughing?"_

_He continued to chuckle. Finally he caught his breath. "Claire, I'm thirty minutes from your house. I just called to see if you needed me to bring you anything."_

_She blinked in disbelief. "What?"_

_"I said . . . ."_

_"I heard you!" _

_He chuckled again. "There's the old Christmas cheer."_

_She looked down at herself and then at the laundry she had spread out in folded piles all over the living room furniture in front of her. She was wearing a stained old oversized sweatshirt that used to belong to Chris and a faded pair of ripped jeans. 'Goddamn him!' she thought. 'He probably looks hot!' She sighed. "Sorry I'm testy," she muttered. "I don't mean to give you a hard time. I was so sure you weren't gonna make it again. I've been moody because I was disappointed. I just miss you is all."_

_"Aww."_

_"Shut up."_

_He laughed. "I'm only teasing. And of course you know I've missed you, too."_

_"You better have." She was searching frantically through her freshly folded laundry for something to wear while balancing the phone between her ear and shoulder. "Listen, Leon. I have to go. I need to tidy up for your visit."_

_"Okay. Don't go to too much trouble." _

_"Blah blah blah."_

_He laughed out loud. "So? Do you need me to bring you anything or what?"_

_"Uh . . . wine?" _

_"Okay. I'll take you to dinner too if you want."_

_"No, I can handle dinner tonight . . . and breakfast tomorrow . . . hint, hint."_

_He chuckled. "Subtle. Red or white wine?"_

_"White tonight, preferably a Riesling or chardonnay, and champagne for mimosas in the morning. I've got plenty of breakfast stuff."_

_"Got it. Anything else?"_

_"Do you still like Thai food?"_

_"Love it."_

_"Okay. Get a pen. I need a bunch of stuff." _

_"You can cook Thai food?"_

_"Yeah. Stayed with a couple in Lampang whose children I rescued last year. I was hiding out from TriCell in their home for like two months. The kids' grandma taught me a ton of her family's recipes while I was there."_

_"Marry me."_

_She chuckled. "No, way. You're crazy. Between you and my brother's genetics, my kids would be bouncing off the padded walls."_

_He laughed out loud again. "Fine! Be that way!" There was a short pause. "Okay, I'm ready with the pen."_

_"Great. Get me a pound of Alaskan king crab legs, a half pound of shrimp, two lobster tails, two whole squid, two dozen oysters, two pounds of filet of whatever whitefish you prefer, something that can hold up to spices, like cod or something, two small cans of coconut milk, four large cans of fish stock, a bundle of scallions, about four shallots, four limes, about a half pound of snow peas, a bundle of cilantro, one Thai chili pepper if you like a lot of heat, a half pound of white bean sprouts, two packs of dry lo mein noodles, a big prepackaged container of baby spinach salad greens, and two small carrots. Actually, wait a second. I need to see if I have enough spices. Hang on." She walked into the kitchen and looked at her spice rack. "Let's see. Turmeric . . . Madras curry powder . . . cardamom . . . Thai red curry paste . . . fish sauce . . . minced garlic . . . sugar . . . . Yup, I'm good."_

_"Got it. I saw an Asian food market about five miles back on this highway. I'll do a U-ie and stop there to get your ingredients. Oh, and by the way, I don't know what you're making but it sounds awesome. Except maybe the oysters. Not too sure how I feel about oysters with Thai spices."_

_"They're not going in the soup."_

_"Ah. So it's a soup then."_

_"It is."_

_"So then, what do you need the oysters for?"_

_"Appetizer. Those are for me to grill with butter, garlic, herbs, and my leftover Asiago cheese."_

_"Sounds delicious, but why oysters?"_

_"They're an aphrodiasiac. Why do you think?"_

_He smirked. "I don't need one. Seeing you will be inspiration enough."_

_"Aww. You're so sweet, Leon. Now, get your sweet ass to the shopping already. I haven't got all day."_

_"Blah blah blah."_

_She giggled. "See you in about an hour then, Sweetheart?"_

_"Yeah. See you then. And go easy on the garlic. You and I have some kissing to catch up on."_

_They both hung up, and Claire immediately began running around like a headless chicken trying to simultaneously tidy her home and beautify herself._

* * *

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA! _

_Claire's novelty front door 'bell' announced in a deep, urban male voice the arrival of her guest. _

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

_She took one last look at herself in the full-length mirror on the back of the closet door in her bedroom. She wore an antique-rose colored twin-set which included a cardigan and matching corset-inspired strapless sweater underneath, almost demure by Claire's standards as it had more of a tube top feel at the breasts than a cleavage revealing bustier. It was not as tight as a corset, but it was molded flatteringly to the contours of her body. It had jeweled accents down the front in the shape of a corset's ribbing, and crisscrossed ribbons down her back, tied over her shoulder blades, like any good corset should. The sweater's design made for an illusion that was very flattering to Claire's already flattering curves. Her pants were slim fit low rise jeans in stonewash chocolate brown. She completed the look with a pair of sand colored three-inch heels. _

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

_She smiled at her reflection. "Thanks, Jill," she said to her late friend, who had gone shopping with her to buy the outfit three weeks before leaving for the mission that would cost Jill her life. Jill had convinced Claire to buy the outfit because she looked 'elegantly sexy' in it, per Jill's words. Claire wiped a tear from her eye and headed down the stairs to greet her boyfriend._

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

_Claire rolled her eyes. "I'm coming! Geez!" She opened the door and narrowed her eyes when a hysterically laughing Leon pressed the doorbell again, even though Claire was already standing in front of him with the door wide open. _

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

_"Leon . . . would you stop ringing my doorbell?"_

_He couldn't stop laughing. "This is so goddamn funny!" he laughed. He hit the button again._

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

_She smirked and shook her head. "That's right. It was still just a bell the last time you used it, but actually it was like this the last time you were here. You just were unaware because you didn't use the front door . . . you broke in like a common thief." She chuckled. "Chris bought this for me three years ago. Did you know he actually thought I wouldn't install it?"_

_Leon wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes. "I guess he should know you better by now."_

_She smiled up at him. "Yeah. I guess he should."_

_A moment later, Claire threw herself against Leon and wrapped her arms around him. He had to put down the bags of groceries he was carrying to hold her properly. She hugged him tightly and he lifted her off her feet in a warm embrace. He sighed. 'God, I missed her,' he thought as he closed his eyes and basked in the scent of her perfume._

_After over three minutes of just holding each other, Claire and Leon heard a sound of a throat clearing behind them. Claire looked over Leon's shoulder. Standing behind him, there was an attractive stranger with dark auburn hair, rather similar to the color Claire's hair was in Raccoon City. Claire blinked a few times at her unexpected visitor, and then turned to stare questioningly at her boyfriend. Leon sighed and put her down._

_"I'm sorry. Didn't mean to ignore you," he said to the redhead behind him as the redhead beside him lounged her head against his chest. "I just doubt she'd want to do that anymore once she realizes who you are. I was indulging."_

_The person smiled and shrugged. _

_Claire looked totally confused. "Baby, you didn't tell me you had someone with you." She said it with a smile, but she slapped Leon's arm. _

_"Sorry. It was a surprise." He smiled at the person behind him who rolled their eyes. "May we come in?" he asked Claire._

_She smiled warmly at her new guest. "Please. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you both standing out in the cold." She stepped back so they could enter her foyer. Leon picked the bags up again and he and his companion followed Claire indoors. On the way in, Leon hit the doorbell one last time then started laughing again._

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

_Claire and the guest both rolled their eyes._

_"Take your shoes off," Leon instructed their guest between chuckles. "She's got expensive carpets."_

_The young redhead nodded and bent to do as instructed. _

_While her unexpected visitor was thusly preoccupied, Claire used sign language to ask Leon, __"Who is that?"_

_He grinned. __"You can not tell?"__ he signed back. She shook her head. __"Tell you in a moment. First need to tell you about mission I just came home from. Been in quarantine for a week. Why I did not call."__ Claire nodded in understanding. Leon stroked her cheek and then bent to remove his shoes as their guest finished. He limped a little while doing this. _

_"Sweetie! What's the matter with your foot?"_

_He smiled in chagrin. "It's nothing."_

_Their guest raised a brow and then spoke for the first time. "He's lying. He hurt his ankle saving my life." _

_Claire's eyes widened and she tried to drag him to the couch, but he resisted. "Wait a minute, Claire. I need to take my coat off." He started to remove his outerwear as he continued to speak. "So about that mission I told you about," he said while unbuttoning his coat. "I got intelligence from Barry that Umbrella had moved someone we've been searching for to Austria. I spoke to your brother about it and he agreed to go with me to investigate and attempt to rescue the target. We went undercover and infiltrated the facility." He stopped for a moment and looked down at his feet. After a moment of gathering his thoughts, he continued, but he didn't look at her. He couldn't. "Sweetheart, you know how I swore to you that I would one day find Sherry? In particular, I said I'd bring you answers about Sherry, no matter what condition I found her in?" Claire nodded. "Well, in that facility, I found Sherry __**and **__Steve." Claire's eyes widened and then darted back to the ginger-haired person standing in her foyer. "I found them both, but . . . well, as you can see, I've only got one of them with me, now. I . . . was too late to save the other."_

_Claire continued to stare at the person before her for a moment, and then she closed her eyes to stem the stream of tears. 'Sherry,' she thought, as the first tears fell. 'Oh, God . . . my little girl.' She opened her eyes and stared at her guest, no longer a stranger to her. "Leon . . . is this really . . . ." She covered her mouth to stop from sobbing out loud._

_Leon smiled sadly as his quarantine companion of the last week started to well up along with Claire. He looked over at his girlfriend, who was no longer paying him any mind. It was evident to him how much they loved each other. He didn't hang his coat on the empty hook Claire had indicated. He knew he'd be putting it back on and leaving these two alone any minute. _

_'Chris is right. I __**am **__jealous.' He sighed. "Claire, this is someone you thought was lost to you forever, someone we've both thought was dead all these years." He sighed sadly, but didn't stop smiling. "Someone who loves you very much, and you love equally so."_

_She shook her head in confusion as she stared into the warm blue eyes of her guest. The person she loved so dearly took off the winter coat worn over their clothing. _

_Underneath, was Claire's pink leather Made in Heaven vest from Raccoon City._

_"Yeah, Claire. It's Sherry. She's home. But I'm afraid that there was nothing I could do to save Steve." He handed Claire the Rockfort Island prisoner identification necklace he had taken off Steve's body._

_Leon thought back to the moment he read Steve Burnside's name over the door at the end of that last hallway on the B.O.W. level of the Austria facility. Then Chris pointed out Sherry's name over the opposite door. As happy as he was to see Sherry unscathed, her hair now the badly dyed color of Claire's from the day they'd all met, was as horrified as he was to see what was left of Steve. He would have happily risked his relationship with her to reunite Claire with the young man, if for no other reason than to make his beloved happy. But the prospect of that sacrifice died when he opened the door and found that his newly named secondary target was very much dead. He only hoped that the young man had never been revived after he'd initially died in Antarctica. But considering how much older Steve looked than sixteen, Leon seriously doubted Steve had stayed dead. He'd been laid out on an autopsy table, chest and abdomen cut open, a pained expression on his lifeless face, and many of his internal organs laid out in jars on shelves, including a jar containing one particular 'organ' and its two 'backup performers' that made Leon want to cross his legs. It was the sight of __**that **__jar that sent Leon barreling out of Steve's cell. That and the look on that poor man's face . . . not only had he been revived since the Redfields last saw him, he was clearly awake when the butchers began harvesting his flesh._

_And Leon had been absolutely right about the impact that image would have on him. He'd been having nightmares about poor Steve ever since. In some of them, it was his own face he saw on that mutilated corpse, while Steve, wearing white body armor, threw bombs into his cell, placed a bomb in Leon's lifeless hands on what remained of his chest, and then walked out and closed the door. When everything went dark and silent save for the beep of the timers counting down, Leon would awaken, sweating and shaking, searching his bed for a gun. _

_While Leon was thinking about Steve and his own nightmares, Claire walked shakily towards Sherry. When the two women stood toe to toe, they hugged and burst into bawling and streaming tears. _

_The sound of their crying pulled Leon out of his inner musings. He smiled sadly at them for a while. They had lost so much time together. He sighed then bent to put his shoes back on. He put the bags of Asian groceries on the tiled foyer floor, and then put his coat back on. _

_He took one last look at the two girls he loved most in this world, equaled only by his mother and little sister. One redhead he loved like a soul-mate, and the other he loved like she was his own child. But it had always been painfully obvious which surrogate parent Sherry loved the best or which man Claire loved at all. _

_It was bad enough Claire was off falling in love with Steve after she left them, but she would never understand how much Sherry and Leon's relationship had fractured in her absence . . . how often Sherry picked arguments with him, blamed him for Claire leaving, and then finally accused him of tossing her aside when he was recruited against his will into the special ops unit he'd served in under Krauser, even though he'd done it to insure her safety. And Sherry had been less than gracious to him during their enforced government quarantine, preferring to yell at him or just keep Chris's company. Yes, things had settled out and they'd talked through their issues by the end of the past week while under quarantine, but he still felt things remained strained, and even though Sherry was being nicer to him now, that didn't change how he felt._

_Leon Kennedy was jealous of how much Sherry Burkin loved Claire Redfield . . . unconditionally, irreproachably, with total devotion. Even after Claire had deserted them both, even after Leon gave up his freedom to the government for Sherry's sake . . . to keep Sherry safe, she remained enamored with Claire. He could see right away that Claire was already forgiven. Claire was the hero to Sherry that only a mother could be. Leon knew he would never be the hero to her that only a father could be._

_He tried to sneak out the door without the women noticing, but the limp made his gait rather clunky. He wasn't as stealthy as he usually would have been. The twenty year old and the twenty-seven year old broke their hug when Leon tripped over the leg of the accent table in the foyer, causing Claire's house, car, and motorcycle keys to crash to the tiled floor. He muttered a curse._

_"Leon, where are you going? Did you forget something in the car?"_

_"No, uh . . . . I . . . well, I was just gonna hit the road."_

_Claire and Sherry both shouted in unison, "YOU'RE LEAVING?"_

_Leon nodded. _

_Claire frowned furiously. "So, you promise to spend the holiday with me, but instead you just swing by with Sherry and fucking leave?"_

_"Don't worry. I'm leaving Sherry here with you."_

_"What about you?"_

_"Sherry's more important to you than I am. And you're more important to her, too. You won't even miss me."_

_Sherry rolled her eyes and then muttered, "Not this shit again. Leon . . . Dad . . . I told you, I don't have a favorite parent. I love you both equally. Yes, I was mad when you last saw me before my capture, but I was a kid and I'd just lost my parents, my surrogate mother, and then it looked like I was losing you too. You were my last chance at a life, and you were leaving me in protective custody. I get now how much you sacrificed for me, but at the time, I was twelve. I didn't know any better and I was hurting. So, I made a scapegoat of you . . . and I could never express to you how sorry I am for the things I said."_

_Leon stared at Sherry. Oh, sure. Now they were with Claire so she acts magnanimous. But what about the things she said to him in quarantine. Was she sorry for __**that**__?_

_Claire pulled him out of his thoughts when she slapped him in the back of the head. "There! Maybe __**that'll **__set your big stupid head to rights! You take off the coat and shoes right now, and park your ass on that sofa!" Leon smirked and shook his head. Fine. They claimed to want him to stay for now, so he'd stay. He just really didn't feel like arguing with either of them._

_Despite the random act of violence, Claire helped Leon off with his shoes while he removed his coat, and then held his waist as he limped to her living room area. As Claire started to get up to go back over to the doorway to take the groceries into the kitchen, Leon grabbed her hand. She turned to face him._

_"What is it?"_

_"Nothing. It's just that you look stunning." He was trying to make peace, at least with Claire. Then Sherry sat by his side, took his other hand, and leaned her head against his arm. He smiled. Okay . . . so maybe he could make peace with both of them, at least for the holidays._

_Claire smiled and bent to kiss his lips. "You look pretty handsome yourself there, Agent Kennedy." He was wearing a Cashmere half-zip navy blue Eddie Bauer sweater with a classic fit that accentuated his muscles in a way that made her shiver. His long legs stretched before him in Armani khakis. _

_She stole one more kiss before rushing off to put the groceries in the kitchen. She smiled as she unpacked the food. He'd gotten what she'd asked for, but he got enough for three people instead of two. She put everything away. It was still early enough that she didn't need to start cooking yet, but she did go out back and start up the grill for the oysters._

_She walked back into the living room to find a scene that she hadn't born witness to in almost ten years. Leon and Sherry were watching C.S.I.: Miami on her big 42" flat screen TV. Sherry had her feet up on the sofa, and her head low on Leon's left chest. He was stroking her hair. They looked as comfortable with each other as they had the last time the three of them were together in that hotel suite in Atlantic City. She had detected some tension between them from the moment she was told it was Sherry. The sight before her was a relief. She had to fight back the tears that threatened to resurface at seeing them reunited again._

_"Got room for one more?"_

_Leon smiled at her. "Sure." He patted his right shoulder then held his arm out to her. She sat on his right, just as she used to, now more out of habit than out of fear for hurting his long since completely-healed left shoulder._

_They watched a Christmas-themed episode of the C.S.I. spin-off, laughing every time David Caruso's Horatio Caine got theatrical._

_"My God," Sherry said. "He's worse than Shatner."_

_Leon and Claire cracked up. It was true. It was why Miami was their favorite C.S.I. Caruso was so bad, he was awesome._

_Throughout the episode, the three Raccoon City survivors became more and more relaxed, until the tension in the air had dissipated entirely. _

_After the show ended, the reunited family talked about their near decade apart. Leon pointed out how Sherry had dyed her hair to match Claire's. He tried to 'jokingly' imply that it was proof that Claire was Sherry's favorite parent. Sherry just laughed, not allowing him to bait her. _

_"No, Daddy. This has been my way of flipping off Albert Wesker for years. Every time he did something that pissed me off, I'd break out of my cell, manufacture tints in the lab, dye my hair, and then style it like one of the original Umbrella survivors, male or female. I've seen pictures of everyone in the Umbrella most wanted files. And by the way, Daddy . . . I wore __**your **__hairstyle for six months a couple years ago, after I heard about you screwing up his plans in Spain. I can't tell you how much he'd hate it every time I'd change my hair." She giggled. "Shoulda seen that jerk's face when I dyed it black and did a mullet. I also wrote 'MOTHER' on my arm in black ink, just like Billy Coen's tattoo, then did a picture of Claire like a tattoo right above it. It was like getting a two-fer of pissing him off by reminding him of two of you. He actually threw things that day!" _

_Claire and Leon both chuckled. "What did he do to make you mad enough to do a Claire-do?" Leon asked._

_"He lied to me!" Sherry fumed. "He promised me four months ago he wouldn't put me in a stasis tube again until I was at least twenty-one years old! I told him I have nightmares in those things, and the fluid is bad for my skin! But then about two, three days before Dad and Uncle Chris showed up, he had that prick homo Dr. Weissmuller put me back in one of those tubes anyway! I'm still twenty, that liar!"_

_Leon chuckled but Claire was not amused. "Sherry! I never would have pegged you as a homophobe!"_

_"I wasn't until I met Erik and Cecil Weissmuller."_

_"Who's Cecil?" Leon asked._

_"Erik's partner or husband or whatever . . . his lover that he married with Wesker's help . . . the guy dressed as Farmer Fred."_

_Leon chuckled. "Oh. Him."_

_"Daddy, are they dead?" Leon nodded. Sherry sighed. "Thank God."_

_"Your uncle and I could tell that you put up quite a fight, what with the disheveled gurney with the restraints. Sorry you went back into a stasis tube, Angel. "_

_"Why are __**you **__sorry?"_

_"Because . . . I think that's mine and Chris's fault. We intentionally leaked intel to Umbrella that we were going to be in the area and then sent decoys dressed as us to make them give up their security measures. I guess they put you on ice to hide you from us. Although, it seems pretty stupid for them to put your name on a plaque above the door of your holding cell if they didn't want us to know where you were."_

_"They didn't think you'd ever get down there. They said so. Honestly, they never thought you'd get in the building. They didn't even bother to show your photos to all their men. I mean, I saw them kinda half-assed look at your pictures, but not really. I know Cecil didn't look."_

_Leon chuckled. "We were in and out so fast, they never knew we were there until we'd blown them to pieces."_

_"Oh?" Claire asked. "Then what happened to your leg, Sweetheart?"_

_"Tyrant."_

_Her eyes widened. "There was a tyrant there?"_

_"Two. A G tyrant derived from the virus extracted from Sherry's blood, and a T-Veronica tyrant derived from the virus they got from Steve's body." Leon didn't notice, but Sherry's face fell a bit when he mentioned Steve. Claire __**did **__notice. She didn't comment on it just then, but she catalogued it in her head as something to discuss with Sherry later. In the meantime, she tuned back into what her boyfriend was saying. "And so, the first tyrant broke Chris's clavicle and the second sprained my ankle. We went on to destroy a couple of lesser B.O.W.'s." His smile faded. "They both must have been created from the sample Ada stole from me in Spain." He was quiet, frowning darkly for a few moments as he thought of the Asian woman having betrayed him yet again after he risked his life to save her . . . just like in Raccoon City . . . just like when she let him think he'd been responsible for her death for six years. He eventually shook off the angry feelings and continued. "Then we found Sherry and Steve." He paled a little upon mentioning Steve again. He turned to face Claire. "Um . . . that reminds me. Claire . . . I . . . I should tell you. We . . . we destroyed his body. We blew up the tyrants and the lesser B.O.W.'s which were Plagas like the ones I faced in Spain and something called Majini. We didn't want them to just escape when we blew the facility. And then we set bombs around Steve . . . so Umbrella could never use him again as a source of the T-Veronica virus."_

_Claire just stared at Leon for a while. He thought she looked pretty angry. But then she just sighed and closed her eyes, wiping away tears of pain. "Against my visceral reaction to that news, Leon . . . I suppose I should be thanking you. Maybe now, Steve can finally rest in peace."_

_Leon lowered his gaze, unable to face her. He felt almost as bad as if he'd killed Steve himself. "I know how much he meant to you, Claire. I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news."_

_She sighed and shook her head, but she also sat up, moving a little away from him as she spoke. "Leon, you've brought me news that Steve is no longer the property of Umbrella. That's good news, really it is. I'm happy for him, and I'm grateful to you."_

_He smiled and nodded, but he didn't believe her. He had seen the look on her face when he'd told her, and she put distance between them right away. She was pissed with him . . . he was certain of it. _

_Claire could tell he was still upset, so she did the only thing she knew would make him smile. She hugged him tightly, and then kissed him soundly. As she'd hoped, he grinned. 'I will never tire of that grin,' she thought._

_Leon pressed his forehead to hers, closed his eyes, and sighed through his nostrils. Claire bent forward and kissed his nose. He opened his eyes and chuckled when she crossed hers. "Okay. I get it. You're not mad at me."_

_She looked at him funny for a moment. "Why would I be mad at you?"_

_"I blew up Steve," he whispered._

_She pulled away from him and laughed out loud. "Well, Jesus Christ, Leon! __**You **__didn't kill him!" She kissed him again, and then slapped him on the forehead. "Seriously, your big stupid head just won't fix no matter how hard I hit it. Maybe I need to go get a hammer from the garage."_

_He smirked. "Ha ha. You're so funny."_

_She giggled. "Yeah, I'm hilarious." He chuckled. "Are we cool, Godammit?"_

_He nodded. "Yes. We're cool as long as you're cool."_

_"I'm __**always **__cool."_

_He laughed. "That you are, Sweetheart. Then I guess we're cool."_

_"Good. Now stop being all sullen and weird. It's pissin' me off!"_

_"Yes, Ma'am."_

_She smiled into his eyes and kissed him again, a bit deeper this time. When she released him, Sherry shook her head and chuckled a bit._

_Leon looked down at the top of his surrogate daughter's head. "Does this make you uncomfortable, Sherry?"_

_"That my Mom and Dad are involved with each other romantically? No. Not really. Although I imagine Uncle Chris must be in love with the idea . . . or does he know?" she replied with a subtle, sarcastic little smirk. "He certainly didn't mention anything about you two being together during quarantine . . . and neither did you."_

_Leon chuckled. "He doesn't actually know. Only you and my friends, Ark Thompson and Bruce McGivern know about me and Claire. And the President figured it out on his own, although I continue to deny it. Still, he tells me I'm full of shit every time I do."_

_"Yay! I'm special! I get to know about the dirty love affair!" Sherry cheered, punctuating the exclamation with a chuckle._

_"Quit making fun of us, Missy," Claire ordered, but not at all seriously._

_"Sure thing, Mom." _

_Claire smiled at being called 'Mom' again. 'That's starting to have a nice ring to it.' _

_Sherry watched Claire caress Leon's thigh affectionately while she woolgathered. The younger lady smiled. "So, Mom. Did you really not recognize me when we first got here?"_

_"No," Claire replied, blushing a bit in embarrassment when reminded of her misconception upon being reunited with her fully grown and very beautiful ward. _

_"So then, who did you think I was when you first saw me?"_

_"Um, I . . . uh . . . IthoughtyouwereLeon'snewgirlfriend," she muttered under her breath in one long exhalation. Leon and Sherry just stared at her blankly._

_"What the hell did you just say?" Leon asked. "I couldn't understand a word of that."_

_She rolled her eyes. "I thought she was your girlfriend!"_

_He frowned in confusion. "I thought __**you **__were my girlfriend."_

_She sighed. "I am."_

_He finally understood and laughed so hard he started coughing. When he caught his breath, he exclaimed, "Jesus, Claire! Every woman you see me with isn't someone who's trying to bang me, you know!" _

_"Yeah, yeah. I know." She stared down at the floor. "But it's been two years since I've even seen you, then you show up with a younger, prettier version of me." She wrapped her arms around her torso and squeezed. "I can't help feeling a little insecure about my place in your affections." _

_He sighed. " I thought I'd made how I feel clear to you. I mean, we talk all the time . . . almost everyday. And I tell you how beautiful you are everyday. But I've been a bad boyfriend if you question so quickly whether we're together at all. I swear to you though, there's been no one but you on my mind, in my heart, or on my bed in over three years. No one but you, Claire." _

_"It's two years. And I've never even been to your condo, let alone on your bed."_

_He chuckled. "My bed is dying to meet you. It's heard so much about you." He then caressed her cheek. "And for the record, I meant what I said about three years. I hadn't been with another woman in about a year when we were last together. And I __**want **__you to come visit me in D.C., but I'm not the only one who's been busy, you know." _

_She blushed again and smiled. "I didn't say you were." _

_Sherry chuckled. "Is that why you were wrapped so tightly around Daddy's arm after you noticed me?" _

_Claire smiled at her adoptive daughter, who was smirking in amusement. "Maybe." She sighed. "It's just that he said I wouldn't want to hold him anymore once I found out who you were. I figured he was about to tell me he was leaving me for you." She shrugged. "I wasn't going down without a fight."_

_Leon chuckled. "Claire, I meant that you'd be so focused on your daughter that you likely wouldn't want to be bothered with your boyfriend anymore."_

_Claire chuckled along with him. "Sorry for doubting your loyalty, Leon." _

_He kissed her cheek. "That's alright. Now that you've explained it, I can understand how it might've looked to you."_

_She hugged him tightly. "And I'll never stop wanting to do this with you." She then turned to Sherry and hugged her too. "Sorry for acting all Jerry Springer Show, stay-away-from-my-man-bitch, on you." _

_Sherry giggled and replied, "That's okay, Mom. At least you didn't rip my shirt off or pull out my hair." _

_Leon chuckled and picked up the remote control. He turned the channel until he came to ESPN's rundown of the college football games that had taken place that week. "Sweet," he said. "Cincinnati beat Southern Miss on the twenty-second."_

_Claire and Sherry both chuckled and rolled their eyes. "You and your Ohio pride," Claire said. "Come on, Sherry. Let's get dinner started. The grill should be ready for the oysters by now, and we've got a lot of ingredients to break down. Besides, I think Leon and the Bearcats wanna be alone together."_

_"Okay, Mom."_

_Claire smiled. "Honey, you don't have to call me that if you don't want to."_

_Sherry looked genuinely distressed. "But I want to. Don't you want me to call you 'Mom'?"_

_Claire smiled and nodded. "Of course I do. Come on. I'll teach you how to make your Dad's favorite type of food."_

_Sherry instantly brightened. "I'll grab the poison!"_

_Leon smiled as he watched his girls walk into the kitchen. He settled back on the couch then put a pillow on the coffee table. He winced once he put his foot on the pillow, his body tensed until the pain started to dull, and then he sighed in relief. His ankle was still fairly painful, especially after so much driving . . . but at least the damage wasn't permanent. _

_He smiled. It was worth it to get his little girl back._

* * *

_"Dinner was delicious."_

_"Thanks," Claire replied in a depressed little whisper. _

_Leon stared down at her and smiled. "I really love that you thought enough of me to make my favorite type of food."_

_She didn't say anything for a moment. Finally, she looked up at him with conviction and demanded, "Sweetheart, do you really have to go?"_

_He sighed. _

_"Claire . . . ."_

_"I mean, I thought you were gonna spend the holiday with me." The couple were standing by her front door. Sherry was in the kitchen washing the dishes, trying to give the couple time alone to say good night._

_Leon sighed again and sat down on her rolling desk chair, making the task of putting his shoes on easier with the current state of his ankle._

_"Claire . . . ."_

_"You know what, I don't get why I even care! You obviously have better things to do than to spend Christmas with me! Or keep your promise!" _

_Leon sighed a third time and got up to put on his coat. _

_"Claire . . . ."_

_"I don't know why I expected anything else from you anyway! You __**always **__promise you're gonna spend time with me, but you __**never **__do. Just because you showed up in person to disappoint me this time, I don't know why I thought you'd actually . . . ."_

_"CLAIRE!"_

_She blinked a few times. "What?"_

_"Will you stop scolding me for five seconds? I'm not leaving town. I'm just staying in that bed & breakfast your neighbor owns. It's only a couple miles from here. It's really not as big a deal as you're making it out to be. I'll be back in the morning in time for breakfast."_

_"Right. Sure."_

_"Claire . . . ." He ran his fingertips across her cheek, cupped her face, and kissed her gently. "Baby, I know I've let you down a lot of times in the past, but doesn't the fact that I brought Sherry home count for anything?"_

_She sighed and lowered her eyes. "Yes . . . of course, Leon. And I know how much you sacrificed to bring her home. But that doesn't mean I don't want to spend time with you, too. I didn't know that when you promised me to spend Christmas here that you were just planning to stop by long enough to drop Sherry off and then say, 'technically, I kept my word' before leaving me again."_

_He smiled. "Is that what you think I'm doing?"_

_"Well, isn't it?"_

_"Claire, have you heard a word I've said? I'm staying in Cumberland tonight."_

_"I know! I heard you! Mrs. Steinbaugh's inn! I get it! But I don't understand why you aren't staying in __**this **__house! In __**my **__bed! I haven't seen you in over two years! You said you can only stay for two days! Why do you want to spend half of the time we have together until God only knows when so far away from me?"_

_"I don't __**want **__to spend time away from you, Dammit! I'm trying to give you time alone with our daughter . . . for her sake, not ours!"_

_"Sherry will be with me into the beginning of January, you told me that! You're not!"_

_He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He felt a migraine coming on. "Claire. I hear you. I know you're frustrated. But think of Sherry for a moment. How do you think she'll take my sleeping with you tonight?"_

_Claire looked at him like he was insane. "Leon . . . she'll take it like an adult! Because she __**is **__an adult! Why do you always have to complicate everything?"_

_"Me? I'm not the one complicating things! It's very simple, Claire! She's our child, and I just wanna do what's best for her!"_

_"She may be __**our **__child, but she's not __**a **__child, Stupid! She's older than __**I**__ was when you __**fucked**__ me for the first time!" Leon frowned darkly. "You know what? I give, Leon! Don't even bother to stay in town! Just go! Go back to D.C., back to your real life! Probably back to Angela or Ada or both of them! Have a threesome! Make a whore sandwich. Go on . . . go fuck 'em both! And while you're at it . . . go fuck __**yourself**__!" She shoved him out the front door and slammed it in his face._

_Leon cursed, and pulled his lock-picks. Within two minutes, the lock turned and he opened the door. He didn't find Claire but Sherry sitting on the couch watching Claire's Blu-ray of 'Shaun of the Dead'. _

_"Smooth," Sherry muttered._

_"Can it, Claire junior."_

_Sherry chuckled humorlessly. "She's crying, you know."_

_Leon sighed. "I know. I heard her through the door."_

_"Why are you __**really **__trying so hard to leave, Daddy? You must know that I don't care if you two have sex tonight. I know you haven't seen each other in a long time. You know I'm a heavy sleeper, and I can totally sleep with my iPod on. I won't hear a thing, so you two can go crazy on each other. I mean, I don't understand why you think I'd be bothered by you acting like a normal couple in love?"_

_He sighed. "You heard all that, huh?"_

_She nodded. "Polar bears at the north pole heard that. I was just in the next room trying not to feel uncomfortable."_

_He lowered his eyes. "Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable with our talk about having sex." _

_"The conversation didn't make me uncomfortable at all. Knowing you two were fighting did. I'm not used to it, and I don't like feeling like I'm the cause of it. Now, answer my question. Why so adamant about leaving? If it's really about my comfort level, then worry no more. I'm stoked you guys are together. Hell, I used to hope you'd fall in love and get married from the day we left Raccoon City."_

_He paused for a moment, and then answered. "Because I want to give the two of you the same time alone together that you and I had to talk, so you have the chance to tell her how you feel about her leaving us . . . like you told me while we were in quarantine how you feel about the issues you and I had."_

_Sherry laughed. "Daddy, I'm not gonna do that to her on Christmas! I would ruin her holiday! You know how much Mom loves holidays."_

_Leon smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Of course, she didn't want to scold her favorite parent the way she'd so liberally yelled at him for the week it took them to get through all the testing necessary to prove they weren't infected . . . or at least in Sherry's case that she wasn't anymore infected than she'd already been. She happily ruined his time being reunited with her. No care was taken for __**his **__feelings. _

_He sighed. "Of course, Sherry. We wouldn't want to ruin Claire's holiday."_

_"Great! Then we're in agreement. Now take off your coat and shoes and go apologize for making my Mom cry."_

_He nodded, removed his coat, and sat in the chair again to remove his shoes. "You know, I was just trying to do this for you."_

_"I know. And I appreciate it. But it's unnecessary. It's like she said, I'm not a little kid anymore. I've been through a lot over the last several years, and I think I can handle waiting to talk to Mom for a couple days so you two can sleep together tonight. But what I can't handle is watching you two fighting. That would ruin __**my **__holiday."_

_He nodded and stood to go over to the couch where Sherry sat. He sat beside her and pulled her into a hug. "Sorry for ruining your holiday then."_

_She laughed. "Dad, come on. You're being way too sensitive." _

_He chuckled without humor. "Maybe you're right."_

_She smiled. "Don't patronize me, Agent Kennedy. I know you're mad at me for something or other that I've said to you in the last week. Plus, you can't seem to let go of that ridiculous notion that I love Mom more than I love you."_

_"I know you don't want to admit it . . . to me or yourself, but it's obvious."_

_She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I see why Mom gets so frustrated with you. Daddy, you can be infuriating sometimes. You're very stubborn. __**And **__unforgiving. I've been telling you for the last few days that I'm sorry for the things I said to you after Mom left. But all you've heard all week is the things that I told you had hurt me that you said to me back then. I think you and I __**both **__said things we shouldn't have, but you don't want to hear that. You were a grownup arguing with a grieving child. I called you on that, but I don't try to pretend that what a child says hurtfully to an adult who has sacrificed so much for her doesn't break his heart. And then you don't remember how many times I cried myself to sleep because of Mom. Because she left us. A lot of times, I cried myself to sleep for your sake. I wasn't just mad at her for me. I was mad at her for you. She left you with me, and not one time did you treat me like the burden I was sure that I was to you. But when you sent me into protective custody, I convinced myself that was finally the proof that I'd been right all along . . . that you never wanted to take care of me. You'd found an opportunity to be rid of me and you took it."_

_"I never wanted to get rid of you, Angel. I just wanted you to be safe."_

_"Oh, I know. I know that now. When Wesker came and took me, I finally understood why you worked so hard to hide me."_

_He nodded and hugged her. "I appreciate that you understand."_

_"I appreciate that you forgive me for being such a brat."_

_He smiled. "My kid's not a brat."_

_She giggled. "Do you get my point, finally?"_

_"Yes."_

_"I don't love either of you more than the other, and I had reason to be angry at both of you. But I was much angrier at Mom for a lot longer than I was angry with you. And yet, all I could think of when we were in quarantine was being reunited with her. Just like all I wanted every moment you left me alone while you were training so many years ago, was to see you again. I yelled at you every time you came to visit me . . . but I practically held my breath in wait for your next visit each time you would leave." _

_He sighed. "Thanks, Sherry. That means the world to me."_

_"I love you, Daddy."_

_He beamed. He still had trouble believing she meant that as much as she claimed to, but he would try to accept it, for her sake. "I love you, too." He got up and stretched. He needed to go talk to Claire. His ankle was hurting again. Maybe Claire had an ice pack he could use._

_Sherry got up and jumped up to kiss his cheek then hugged him tightly. She whispered against his sweater, "Don't be upset with Mom. She just loves you too much. She loves you so much, she doesn't want to be away from you for even a moment over Christmas."_

_He sighed. He wasn't going to ruin yet another moment by saying something as cruel to his daughter as the fact that her mother didn't love him, she loved Burnside and probably would grow to hate him for blowing Steve's body to smithereens._

_"Sure, Sherry. Claire loves me very much."_

_Sherry smiled into his eyes. Then her face suddenly got serious. "Oh, my God! You think she doesn't! It's written all over your face!"_

_Leon rolled his eyes. He kind of missed the oblivious little girl he'd last known her to be. This older, wiser version of his daughter was definitely harder to fool._

_"Sherry . . . I can't do this right now."_

_She shook her head and caressed his cheek. "I understand. Not another word from me. But you need to talk to Mom about this. I think you've got the wrong idea."_

_He smiled. "I know you want to believe that. But trust me . . . your mother has made it abundantly clear how she really feels about me."_

_"Well if you feel that way, then why are you with her?"_

_"I just . . . I guess I'll make the most of taking whatever I can get from Claire. I need her . . . in whatever way she's willing to be with me."_

_Sherry looked at him strangely, then sighed and released him. "Okay, Daddy. Whatever you say." She stared at him hopefully for a few moments. "So . . . you leaving?"_

_He chuckled. "No. I'll stay. I would never make your mom cry on purpose."_

_"Great! Because I wanted you to stay, too!"_

_He laughed. "Okay, okay . . . but just for Christmas. Then I have to go back to Washington for a few days. I'll be back for New Year's, though."_

_"You better be. And you better plan on sleeping with Mom. I don't like it when you make her cry." Sherry smiled and shook a fist at him playfully. _

_He chuckled. "Anyone ever tell you, you're awesome, Young Lady?"_

_"I've certainly heard that __**somewhere **__before."_

_He laughed. "Okay, then. So you have my word that we'll all be together on New Year's Eve."_

_"Thanks, Dad."_

_"Anything for my angel."_

_"Anything?"_

_"Anything."_

_"Then get your ass upstairs and make my mom feel better. I'll just turn up the volume on the TV." She giggled and winked at him._

_He rolled his eyes and limped toward the stairs. "Mind out of the gutter, Missy. We're just gonna talk."_

_"Uh huh. Riiiiiight." She sat down, grabbed the remote, and turned the volume up all the way to 50._

_He shook his head with a smirk and headed up the stairs._

* * *

_Claire lay on her side in bed with her knees drawn up to her belly. She stared out the window. It had started to snow. The white dusting of powder on the world outside was beautiful. She sighed. She loved Christmas. But she couldn't enjoy it. Not when she knew Leon was probably already on the highway back to the capitol._

_There was a soft rapping on her bedroom door. She sniffled and wiped her eyes. She didn't want to upset Sherry any more than she was sure the argument already had._

_"Just a minute, Sherry. I'm coming, Sweetheart."_

_She stood up and padded over to the door. She opened it and looked down a bit, expecting her daughter, who was a little shorter than Claire, to be standing outside her room. Since it was Leon, not Sherry, who had knocked, she found herself staring at his sweater._

_"Hi."_

_She looked up, staring at him blankly for a moment. Finally, she asked, "Forget something?"_

_"Yes, actually."_

_She nodded. "Well get whatever it is and get out." She turned to go back to her bed, but he reached out and grabbed her hand. She looked down for a moment at where he was entwining their fingers, then frowned up at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"_

_"I'm getting what I forgot." He pulled her up against him, wrapped his arms tightly around her, and then rocked her back and forth. She tried to push him away for a solid minute before she finally lost herself to her tears. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Claire. I thought it would be a great surprise bringing Sherry without telling you, but now I feel like I should have told you instead. I feel like today just overwhelmed you emotionally. I really messed up. I'm sorry, Baby."_

_She sniffled and dried her tears with the ball of her hand. She walked over to her nightstand and took some tissue from the box to blow her nose. She turned to him with a sad smile. "It's okay. I know I'm just being childish. But I really do appreciate you coming back to give me a little affection." She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. "I'm sorry, too, Leon. I really am so glad to see you. Even for just a little while."_

_He smiled. "I'm not leaving."_

_She shook her head. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to."_

_"Why do you always think I don't wanna stay with you? I always __**wanted **__to stay, Claire. I was just trying to give you and Sherry your space. But if that's not what you want, I'll spend the night. Sherry says my staying won't make her feel uncomfortable, so I see no reason why I shouldn't sleep here tonight. It seems to be what we all want."_

_Her face slowly split into a smile and she leapt into his arms again. He lifted her off the ground and kissed her. He placed her back on her feet and took her hand. He led her out the bedroom door._

_"Leon, why is Sherry blasting my television?"_

_He chuckled. "She thinks I came up here to screw your brains out."_

_Claire laughed out loud. "She's got such a dirty mind, now!"_

_"Yeah, I know. It's like she morphed into a tiny, White female version of Carlos."_

_Claire sputtered a laugh. "You dumbass!"_

_"Tell me I'm lying," he challenged._

_She cracked up. "I wish that I could!" She wiped tears of mirth from her eyes and took his hand again. _

_The couple went downstairs. _

_"That was fast," Sherry muttered while turning the volume down. "What's the matter, Dad? No stamina?"_

_"Nothing happened, you little pervert," Claire said._

_"Yeah," Leon added. "And if it had, you wouldn't have seen us for hours and she'd be walking worse than I am right now."_

_"Hey! Don't corrupt her more than she already is!" Claire slapped him on the back of the head then plopped down on the couch. Leon plopped down on top of both girls._

_"Mmm . . . comfy," he said._

_"AHHH!" Sherry shouted. "My spleen!"_

_"Oh, my God!" Claire screamed. "Baby, you weigh a metric ton! Get yer fat ass the fuck offa me and my kid!" _

_Leon chuckled. "If I'm fat, you're a chubby chaser." He got up off them, and then ducked the couch pillows they both lobbed at him. "Move over, Munchkins."_

_Claire narrowed her eyes and then cracked her knuckles at his having called her short. Leon just laughed and pulled her up against him. Sherry dropped a couch cushion into his lap and laid her head on it. Leon placed a hand on her head and stroked her hair. _

_On the TV, Shaun and his best friend Ed had just tried to kill a zombie with a Prince LP. Claire and Leon both laughed. _

_"Sherry, you have some seriously weird taste in holiday movies," Leon said._

_"Whatever. This from the man who made me watch a Christmas episode of a show about murder set in the hottest city in America."_

_Claire laughed out loud. "She's got you there!"_

_"And Mom? If you really want to chase a chubby, I think Dad can definitely help you out with that." She pointed down at the pillow in Leon's lap._

_Leon sighed. "She's lying, Claire." _

_"There goes that stamina again."_

_He frowned. "Seriously, why did you have to grow up into a pervert again?"_

_Claire and Sherry both chuckled and then kissed him on each cheek before settling back into their comfortable 'Leon is a pillow' positions._

* * *

_Sherry was unconscious in the guest bedroom by eleven. By midnight, Leon and Claire were sitting outside on her front porch. Claire had a porch swing that she was currently stretched out across on her back, her head in Leon's lap, her eyes closed in bliss._

_Leon had his legs stretched out before him, using his good leg to slowly rock the swing. He also had his hand under the blanket that covered his girlfriend . . . using it to slowly tease her bosom through the strapless sweater she wore. He sighed. "Did I tell you how sexy you look in this outfit?"_

_She nodded. "Mm hm," she mumbled lazily._

_He smirked and pushed the inner sweater of her twinset down off her breasts. "I love this sweater set. The little one under the cardigan looks kind of like a corset."_

_"I know. That's why I bought it. I hoped you would like it."_

_He tweaked her bare left nipple. "Oh, I do. I especially like how you decided not to wear a bra under it."_

_She smiled and caressed his hand over her naked breast. "That feels so nice." _

_He smiled and looked down. "Open your eyes." _

_She obeyed. "What's up?"_

_"Nothing. I just want to see your eyes while I'm touching you."_

_She smiled. "You're so wonderful."_

_"You're so beautiful."_

_She pulled the blanket close to her bosom and sat up. She turned to face her boyfriend and wrapped the blanket around them both. They shared a soft, gentle, lingering kiss as he continued to caress her bare nipples under the blanket. A few of Claire's neighbors walked by as the couple made out, but none were the wiser about what was going on under that blanket. Claire was just opening Leon's fly when they were interrupted by a voice coming from the sidewalk right in front of Claire's porch._

_"Aww, how sweet."_

_They parted from each other and looked toward the person who'd spoken. Claire's neighbor Mrs. Steinbaugh was walking her Pomeranian. She lived on the opposite side of Claire's home from the Parkers, the family with the voyeuristic son, Kenny. Mrs. Steinbaugh was also the owner of the bed & breakfast where Leon was originally going to spend the night._

_"Merry Christmas, Mrs. Steinbaugh," they said in unison._

_"Merry Christmas, Claire. Merry Christmas . . . uh, Leon, wasn't it?"_

_"Yes, Ma'am."_

_"Well, it's certainly nice to know that Claire finally has a gentleman caller." _

_Claire smiled and caressed Leon's cheek. "It certainly is." Leon smiled and kissed her. _

_"I was also glad that you canceled that reservation at my inn, young man. Not that I like to lose business, mind you, but you should be spending the night with Claire. Unless you were bringing her with you, there's no reason you should stay in my establishment." _

_He smirked and scratched the back of his head. "I know."_

_Mrs. Steinbaugh smiled. "Oh, dear. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I do realize you were just trying to be a gentleman, but you're the first man I've ever seen call on Claire, and a right handsome one at that. She's so lovely, it pains all us older ladies to always see her alone, living for her work. It's about time she got herself a little di- . . . ."_

_Claire blushed bright red. "Oh my God, Mrs. Steinbaugh! Please don't finish that sentence!"_

_Leon and Mrs. Steinbaugh laughed. "It's not little," Leon said, causing them both to redouble their laughter. Mrs. Steinbaugh laughed so hard, she started to cough. Claire narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend. Leon's laughter dissolved into small chuckles. "Aww. Did I embarrass you, Baby?" _

_"Duh! I have to live here, you know!"_

_"I know. But I'm the one who should be hurt. Clearly, from what Mrs. Steinbaugh just said, your neighbors know nothing about me." _

_Claire flushed even redder. "You . . . you're right." She turned to her neighbor. "Ma'am, Leon and I have known each other for eight years. And we've been dating for that entire time. That's why you never see me with any guys. I've always been with Leon. It's a long distance relationship, so we don't get to see each other often, but we're very much in love. In fact, we adopted a daughter together. She's been studying abroad for some years, but she's come home for the holidays."_

_"And to start her undergraduate education here in Maryland," Leon added, wrapping Claire in his arms. Claire fought hard not to register the shock on her face. Sherry was going to college? Claire thought she'd be staying with her! _

_"Oh my!" Mrs. Steinbaugh uttered. "I had no idea you were in such a committed relationship! I'm so sorry for all the times I tried to fix you up! You always were so polite about saying 'no'. You should've just told me about your big sexy boyfriend. __**Very **__big by all accounts." Mrs. Steinbaugh winked at Leon who chuckled. Claire turned red again._

_Leon kissed her cheek. "Oh, come on, Sweetheart. Mrs. Steinbaugh's awesome. She doesn't care if we joke about our sex life. She just wants to see you happy." He kissed her throat, her cheek, and her lips. "Like I do." _

_"Oh! So romantic!" Mrs. Steinbaugh clapped her hands, and her little dog barked a few times. "And very handsome, Claire. Did I mention that?" Claire nodded and smiled. "Does he have a single uncle?" Claire giggled and nodded again. Mrs. Steinbaugh's face registered shock. She'd only been joking, but if that was true . . . . "Do you really, Leon?"_

_"Yes, Ma'am. My uncle Sean Kennedy is a retired Marine and former confirmed bachelor." _

_"Former?"_

_Leon chuckled. "Yeah. Being retired and alone is . . . lonely. I think he regrets now that he never allowed himself to settle down."_

_Mrs. Steinbaugh nodded in understanding. Some of her late husband's ex-military friends were like that. Then she smirked. "Is he cute?"_

_Claire chuckled when Leon refused to answer that. "I've seen pictures of him, and yes he is. In fact, Leon looks just like him, minus the silver hair and laugh lines." _

_Leon shrugged. "I look more like him than my own father. It's kinda spooky."_

_Claire ran her fingers through Leon's hair. "That silver is gonna look so sexy in your hair when you get older." He smirked and kissed her cheek._

_"Lovely!" Mrs. Steinbaugh said. "Well, then tell him you know a widow with a Victorian inn and great legs who'd love to meet him." _

_The beautiful older woman gave a little turn. Claire gave a wolf whistle and then pointed at Leon when Mrs. Steinbaugh faced them again. "He's such a hound," Claire explained._

_"Aw. Thanks, Leon." He smiled and said she was welcome, and then slapped Claire in the back of the head when her neighbor wasn't looking._

_Mrs. Steinbaugh bent to pet her dog and give him a treat from the little baggie in her coat pocket. "Do you two have plans for tomorrow?"_

_Leon nodded. "We were gonna open our presents in the morning and then make breakfast together. In the evening, we'll be going to dinner at a restaurant in Baltimore that we both love. Our daughter has never eaten there, so we're gonna try to show her a good time."_

_Claire looked surprised. "We are?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Is it the one I think it is?"_

_"Watertable. They're only open for dinner tomorrow."_

_"Seriously?"_

_"Yup. Surprise."_

_Claire squealed with genuine delight and planted kiss after kiss on her boyfriend's face. She'd told him on the phone a few months before that she'd eaten there at a TerraSave function a few years back. They had the best crab cakes she'd ever tasted, and the atmosphere was breathtaking. He'd promised to take her there again someday._

_Leon smiled against her lips and pulled her closer to him. He slid his tongue into her mouth. She sighed and allowed him to deepen their kiss._

_Mrs. Steinbaugh chuckled. "That's my cue to leave. Good night, you two."_

_They broke the kiss. "Night, Ma'am," Leon answered._

_"I'll bring you a crab cake, Mrs. S. . . . and one for Pop-Tart, too."_

_The older woman waved her gloved hand back at the couple. "And Leon's uncle."_

_"And my uncle. Yes, Ma'am. We'll put him in a take-home container."_

_Once Mrs. Steinbaugh left, Leon readjusted Claire more firmly onto his lap, so she was straddling him. He put his hand back on her breast and rolled her nipple between his fingers. He smiled at her, then opened her blanket just enough for only him to see her body. He stared at her breasts for a moment, and then kissed them both. He slid his tongue over her left nipple, before sucking the right nipple into his mouth._

_"Pervert."_

_He released her breast. "Yup. Pretty much."_

_She chuckled. "You're not getting laid tonight, you know."_

_He quirked a brow. "Why not?"_

_"Your answer is right inside the house sleeping."_

_"Sherry?" Claire nodded. "Sherry still sleeps like a comatose mummy, and incidentally, she still snores like there's a chainsaw locked inside the mummy's sarcophagus. She'd never hear us over herself."_

_Claire laughed. "Yeah, well that may be true, but you're still not getting any."_

_Leon sighed. "Fair enough." He pulled Claire's sweater back up onto her breasts and wrapped her securely in the blanket. "By the way, is that dog really named Pop-Tart?"_

_"He is." _

_Leon smirked and shook his head. "Well . . . don't tell the zombies he's named after food." _

_Claire quirked her brow. "You're going to Hell for that."_

_He lifted her in a bridal carry and brought her inside the house. "I thought I was going to Hell for taking your virginity on your brother's desk."_

_Claire giggled before whispering, "Speaking of . . . are you hard?"_

_"Speaking of . . . you shut up. That's __**your**__ fault, Tease." Leon toed out of his shoes in the foyer._

_Claire laughed out loud. "Don't worry, Agent Kennedy. I think you're gonna live."_

_Leon sighed as he limped up the stairs to her bedroom past the sound of a chainsaw locked in a sarcophagus coming from the downstairs guest room. _

_"Remind me again why I'm not gonna get laid? I mean, I bought Sherry an iPod and she sleeps with it on and blasting music in her ears. Besides, there's no way we could ever be louder than __**that**__."_

_Claire smacked his chest. "Don't talk shit about my kid." He pretended to drop her. "Ah!" she yelped and held on tighter to him. He chuckled. She glared at him. "Not funny."_

_He shrugged. "Open the door, Baby. My arms are full of a beautiful woman."_

_She smiled and opened her bedroom door. "Since you asked so nicely."_

_"If I ask nicely for sex, will you reconsider?" _

_"Uh unh. Don't press your luck."_

_He sighed. "Seriously, Baby. Why the dry spell?"_

_She looked away nervously. "No reason. I just want you to hold me tonight. That's all."_

_Leon stared at her critically. Claire was a terrible liar. She definitely was hiding __**something**__ from him, but he wasn't about to pursue it. She had been so touchy all day, and the last thing he wanted was another fucking argument. _

_"That's it?"_

_"Yeah." She still wouldn't look him in the eye while answering._

_He stared at her for a moment. "Okay. Whatever you want, Claire." He placed her gently on her feet._

_"I'll make it up to you?" she asked apologetically._

_He sighed. Being at odds with his girlfriend was exhausting. "It's fine, Baby. Don't worry about it."_

_Leon took off his sweater and pants. Claire pulled the blanket from the porch swing tighter around herself. She smiled at Leon, but he just looked at her strangely. _

_"Are you alright, Claire?"_

_She nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." Her eyes darted away from his gaze._

_"No, you're not. You haven't been yourself all day. You've been moody and unreasonable. That's not like you. What's going on, Claire?"_

_She sighed. "__**Nothing**__, I said!"_

_He frowned. "Tell me what's going on or I'll go see if Mrs. Steinbaugh still has a room at the inn."_

_She frowned at him. "Fine! I was trying to save you the disgust, but if you're gonna say something so __**mean**__ to me, I'll tell you!" She paused and looked at her feet. "It's my time of the month," she muttered quietly._

_He blinked a few times. "What, you mean your period?"_

_"No, my time of the month to pay the mortgage!" she shouted sarcastically. "What the hell time of the month do you think I meant? Now go on! Pull a face! Make a noise like you're gonna vomit!" _

_He stared at her for a moment longer, and then shocked the hell out of her by laughing his head off. "Claire, do you honestly think I'm gonna react like a seventh grader about your being on your menstrual cycle?"_

_"Why not? Chris does and he's four years older than you are."_

_"Oh, come on! Chris is a pussy when it comes to anything that involves feminine hygiene!" he laughed. "Sherry bought douche in a pharmacy in Berlin because she said the stasis fluid made her feel gross, and your brother practically ran out of the store." Claire laughed out loud. Leon smiled. "Claire, I'm not Chris. I would never react like that. In fact, if you had needed me to buy you some feminine hygiene products when I first called you today, I would have." He shook his head in amusement. "You know, you could have at least given me the benefit of the doubt and told me. I mean, you've been annoyed at me all day. It would have been nice to know why." She lowered her head again, but he lifted her chin. "But, I guess if you grew up with your brother acting that way, I can see why you didn't tell me." He kissed her on the corner of her mouth before stretching out on Claire's bed._

_She sighed. "So, you're not grossed out?"_

_"After all the shit I've seen since Raccoon City? No, Baby. I'm not. I still don't get why your brother is after all __**he's **__seen." He pulled the covers back and then stretched his legs out under them. "I mean, it's not like I don't know you menstruate."_

_She smiled and pounced on him. She kissed her way across his chest then looked up into his eyes. "I'm sorry I've been so hormonal today."_

_He shrugged. "Eh, no worries. You're cute when you're possessed by the She-Devil."_

_She giggled. "Take off your underpants, Agent Kennedy. You've earned yourself some affection."_

_He grinned and stripped down to his birthday suit before tossing the bed covers off the bed. "You promise to end the drought when I come back next week?"_

_"You promise to actually come back?"_

_"Oh, I'll be here."_

_She stripped off her clothes, except for her underwear, and laid down beside him, her head by his erection. "Then you'll be a happy man, Agent Kennedy."_

_As Claire lowered her head to give Leon all the pleasure she was capable of giving that day, he thought to himself, 'I already am, Sweetheart.'_

* * *

_It was Christmas night. Sherry was standing back with a serene smile on her face, sipping spiced eggnog spiked heavily with rum. Claire was practically wrapped around Leon. She looked beautiful in a winter white cowl-neck cashmere sweater and deep rose colored slacks. Her long red hair fell heavily down the center of her back. And for once she wore a little lipstick, which she was currently sharing with Leon. Their little family had just returned from dinner in Baltimore, and now, it was time for Leon to go._

_When they reluctantly broke the kiss, Leon stroked Claire's cheek and sighed. He didn't want to go anymore than she wanted him to leave. But he would be back. He'd already cleared it with Hunnigan. Carlos would cover for him if he was called to active duty over the New Year holiday. But to get that guarantee, he had to go home to cover for Carlos for a few days. It was their South American comrade's girlfriend's birthday on December 27th. Leon promised Carlos four days if he gave him the same. He hadn't told Carlos why he needed the holiday off, but Bruce had backed him up and reassured their Latin friend to just trust that it was important. _

_"I know you have to go. Just don't forget your promise."_

_"I won't." He pulled her into a tight hug and closed his eyes. "I'll see you before New Year's Eve."_

_"Okay." She pulled back and looked into his eyes. "I miss you when we're apart."_

_"Not the six years before we were reunited."_

_She smiled and caressed his cheek. "Yeah. Then too." His eyes became very serious. She kissed where she'd just caressed. "What? You think I don't know how wrong I was? I know. And I regret it more than I can ever say. I know I said no regrets when it comes to us, but it felt like the only thing I could think about when I thought of you for all that time . . . my regrets about you."_

_"Regretting that I was your first." It was a statement, not a question._

_She frowned and looked at him strangely. "No. No, Leon . . . I regretted how I treated you the day we lost Sherry. I've never regretted that you were my first. I've told you that a billion times. Why would you say something like that to me?"_

_He smiled and changed the subject. He really didn't feel like getting into an argument about her and Steve right before leaving town. They'd argued enough for one Christmas. "I should get going if I'm gonna make good time." He kissed her. "I'll be thinking about you." She smiled, despite the tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes. He caressed her cheek. As much as he hated to see her sad, her eyes, shimmering with unshed tears in the moonlight, was probably the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He stole one last kiss and turned to limp down the front steps to his car. "Keep her out of trouble, Sherry," he called over his shoulder._

_"I'm not a miracle worker, Daddy."_

_He chuckled as he got into his car. He started the engine, gunned it, and then pulled out onto Claire's street._

_Claire watched his Mazerati disappear around the corner. The tears finally fell. She wiped her eyes and sighed. 'Not even one week. I can do this,' she reassured herself. "Sherry?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"What the hell do you think that was all about?"_

_Sherry shrugged. "He thinks you don't love him."_

_Claire turned abruptly and looked at her daughter, then she turned and looked down the street where he'd just gone. "That's ridiculous. Of course I love Leon. He knows that." She went inside and closed the door._

_"No. He doesn't. I think something you said to him in the past is the reason he thinks that, but he wouldn't tell me what it was."_

_Claire's expression became a bit pained. "He talked to __**you **__about this?"_

_"No. But I confronted him when he made you cry."_

_Claire sighed. "He didn't make me cry, Sweetheart. I mean, missing him made me cry . . . and these goddamn hormones. And then I kept crying because I hate crying . . . and then I cried because I was angry with myself for crying . . . if that makes any sense."_

_"It does, actually. I've been there." Sherry contemplated some of the times she'd wished she were strong enough not to give Albert Wesker the satisfaction of seeing her tears._

_Claire closed her eyes and let her own tears continue to fall, unable to find the ability to be ashamed of them in front of Sherry. "Thanks for understanding. I just miss him, and I'm scared he won't be back."_

_"Don't worry, Mom. He'll be back. He told me before he left that he doesn't ever want to disappoint you again." _

_Claire turned to Sherry and smiled. That wasn't what she meant, but she didn't think there was any reason to make Sherry depressed, too. Claire knew her thoughts were morbid, but such was the existence of the woman in love with a man who risked his life for a living. Too many times, he had called her to say good-bye, assuming he would die, only to call her a few days later to tell her he'd found a way to escape and cheat death yet again. She blinked back tears once more, and pushed her thoughts aside. Those were always painful days. She'd call in sick to work, and sit at home, waiting by the phone, praying for that second call. Someday, they wouldn't be so lucky. Someday, there'd be just the one last call._

_"Is there anymore of that spiked eggnog left, Honey?"_

_"Yup." Sherry wrapped her arm around Claire's shoulders. "Come on, Mom. I'll buy you a drink. You look like you could use one."_

_Claire smiled and toed out of her shoes. She wiped her eyes again and hugged her daughter. "Has anyone ever told you that you're an amazing kid?"_

_Sherry chuckled. "I'm sure I've heard that __**somewhere **__before."_

_When the kitchen door swung closed behind them, Claire asked nervously, "So . . . did you want to talk now . . . about how I left that night eight years ago?"_

_Sherry's smile faltered. "Nah. It can wait. We've got almost a week of just you and me, so we'll get to it. You're sad tonight because Daddy had to leave, and this won't be an easy conversation." Claire nodded and lowered her eyes. Sherry smiled sadly then changed the subject. "Dad says he got me into college. First day of spring semester is January 3rd. I move in the day before. I'm kinda scared but I'm excited, too."_

_Claire sighed. "Yes, he told me last night. He says it's close by. Somewhere here in Maryland." Close, sure . . . but it probably wouldn't be close enough for Claire's liking._

_"Yup. I'm gonna attend Loyola University in Baltimore."_

_Claire raised her brows. "Oh? Well that's not too far at all. We certainly made it to dinner tonight without too much of a hassle."_

_"Then I can come home with my laundry?"_

_Claire chuckled. "Of course you can. Do you have a driver's license?"_

_"Yes. Wesker was a full-on prick to me, and most of the scientists he had watching me over the years were total douche bags, but Dr. Bennett made sure I had as many of the trappings of a normal teenage girl as possible. She was . . . nice. I got my license in Texas two years ago. She taught me how to drive herself."_

_Claire recognized the name. Dr. Patricia Bennett. She had been an anti-Umbrella spy working for the BSAA's predecessor agency . . . the mavericks that Barry and Leon's shape-shifting double had worked for at the time of the Starlight cruise ship mission. And Sherry was right . . . she __**was **__nice. Claire had only met her once, but Dr. Bennett reminded her of a Southern Black grandmother. "What happened to her?"_

_Sherry frowned. "She tried to help me escape. She . . . she didn't make it. Then I was recaptured anyway."_

_Claire's face fell. "I'm sorry, Sherry."_

_Sherry sighed. "Yeah. Me too. She gave her life to free me. When they caught me anyway, I felt like I'd let her down. Like she died in vain because of me."_

_Claire took the eggnog out of the refrigerator. "I didn't mean to call up bad memories, Sweetie. I was just gonna ask you if you wanted a car on campus."_

_Sherry's face immediately lit up. "You're buying me a car?"_

_Claire shrugged. "Well, I gotta get you __**something**__, right? I mean, your Dad has already given you your freedom and a college education. He's not one-upping me . . . that son of a whore!"_

_Sherry giggled as she grabbed Claire a mug and then handed it along with the one she'd just emptied to Claire. She kissed Claire on the cheek. "I love you, Mom."_

_Claire smiled. "I love you, too. And I __**do **__love your dad. Honestly, he can be so fucking sensitive sometimes! I told Mrs. Steinbaugh that we were in love just last night! He heard me!" She sighed and filled the two mugs with eggnog. "Anyway, I'll call him tomorrow morning and straighten his cute butt out." She handed her surrogate daughter a drink. They clinked mugs and sipped. Claire stared at Sherry for a moment, and then smiled warmly._

_Leon had promised Claire a happy holiday. Even with all the drama, he'd certainly delivered._

* * *

_Claire awoke the next day to the scent of Leon's cologne on her pillowcase. She smiled and closed her eyes. She inhaled then sighed. She missed him already. _

_She was a little hungover. Okay, a lot hungover . . . and still pretty drunk, if she was being totally honest. She had welled up a lot of times overnight, so Sherry kept handing her alcohol. _

_She knew she was supposed to talk to Leon about something this morning, but she had no idea what. She snuggled further under the covers with his scent. She probably was supposed to tell him he smelled nice. 'Yeah,' she thought drowsily. 'That's probably it.' _

_She picked up her cordless phone off the nightstand and dialed. It rang once before it was picked up._

_"Agent Kennedy."_

_"Hi, Sexy."_

_"Claire?"_

_"Mm hm," she mumbled sleepily._

_"Is everything okay?"_

_"Yuppers."_

_"Then why are you calling me at work?"_

_"I gotta tell you something," she whispered._

_He smiled. She was clearly intoxicated. "Like what?" he whispered in return._

_"You smell nice."_

_He quirked his brow. "O . . . . kay. You smell nice . . . too?"_

_"Okie-Dokie. Nigh'-nigh'."_

_He chuckled. "Bye, Claire. Sleep it off, Baby. Call me when you're sober."_

_She giggled. "M'kay. Bye, Leon." She heard a dial tone as he hung up. "There," she muttered. "Tha's done."_

_She began to drift back to sleep. About an hour and a half later, she suddenly felt a weight land on top of her in the bed. She awakened immediately and groped for her gun. She groaned as the sound of familiar feminine giggling greeted her ears._

_"Rise and shine, Mom!"_

_"Oh, God," Claire muttered into her pillow. "Don't tell me you've grown up into a morning person."_

_Sherry laughed. "It's after one, actually." Claire groaned and covered her head. "Hey, Mom, here." Sherry handed her the cordless phone. "Call Daddy and tell him what you said you were gonna tell him today."_

_Claire smiled serenely at the mention of Leon. "Already did."_

_"You did? What did he say?"_

_"Okay."_

_"Did he say it back to you?"_

_"Yeah." Claire smiled. Leon __**did **__say she smelled nice._

_"Awesome! Now that __**that's**__ settled . . . ." Sherry stood up and began jumping on Claire's bed. "Come on, Sleepy-butt! Get up! It snowed all night! It's so pretty outside! Come see it with me!"_

_"Seen one snowfall, seen 'em all."_

_Sherry sighed. "Mom, I hadn't seen outside in two years, and before Dr. Bennett was around, not since I was twelve until Dad and Uncle Chris came and got me."_

_Claire opened her eyes and looked up at Sherry. "They never let you outside? But you said he moved you all around the world over the years."_

_Sherry nodded, smiling sadly as she dropped down to sit by Claire. "Yeah . . . in a cryogenic stasis tube with a portable generator in a big crate on a cargo plane."_

_Claire frowned. She was never so happy to know that Jill had sent Wesker to Hell. She hugged her daughter. "If you want to go outside, then let's go outside. Just let me get dressed and we'll go build a snowman."_

_Sherry squealed with joy and ran out of the room. "I'll be downstairs!" she yelled from the hall._

_"Make a pot of coffee!"_

_"Okay!"_

_Claire sighed. She closed her eyes for a moment, sighed, and then jumped up out of bed to go get into the shower. _

* * *

_Thirty minutes later, Claire came downstairs wearing a black turtleneck, dark wash blue boot cut jeans, and a long hooded black cardigan with a red, black and white Southwestern pattern._

_Sherry was on the couch playing Claire's Grand Theft Auto video game. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a jewel neckline white tee with a tattoo pattern that said 'FREEDOM' on a scroll across her chest surrounded by tattoo pattern roses and angels. The rose tattoo design also ran down the outside of the left sleeve. The tee had a layered design that looked like a short sleeved shirt over a long sleeve one, but it was actually a mock layered design used on a single shirt. _

_As Claire entered the living room, Sherry's video game character ran over another character (a hooker that looked suspiciously like Ada Wong) with his Cadillac. Sherry went up in a cheer._

_"G.T.A., motherfucker! Ten points!"_

_Claire started to laugh. "You're as bad as your uncle Chris. Come on. Get your coat on. I'll get the snowman clothes. I have some more barbecue coals by the grill and radishes in the fridge."_

_"Those grilled oysters rocked, Mom. And that thai coconut curry seafood noodle soup . . . that was like the best Asian food I've ever eaten. Can you teach me how to cook?" _

_"Of course."_

_"Cool beans! Now, back to snowman business. If you have radishes, then we can make red lips. Let's make it a snowwoman."_

_Claire smiled. "I like it. I have some old clothes in the basement that I was gonna give to the Good Will. Find our snow princess an outfit. I'll get her a face."_

_The two women went about their tasks, and then made a very effeminate snow person with an hourglass figure, a stylish church hat passed down to Claire by her great aunt, and a cool old jean jacket. Mrs. Steinbaugh walked Pop-Tart past Claire's house. _

_"Oh, my! Claire, is this your daughter?"_

_"Yes, Ma'am. This is Leon's and my adopted daughter Sherry Burkin. Sherry, this is Lorreli Steinbaugh, my next-door neighbor." Mrs. Steinbaugh's Pomeranian barked. "Oh! And that's little Pop-Tart. Sorry, boy." Appeased with the introduction, the little dog began to chase his own tail. He yelped in pain every time he caught it._

_"Oh! He's so cute!" Sherry exclaimed. "Can I pet him?"_

_"Of course." Mrs. Steinbaugh gave the leash to Sherry who bent to pet the dog. He rolled onto his back so she could rub his belly. Sherry giggled and complied. _

_The widow stood by Claire and said, "She's so lovely."_

_Claire smiled with pride. "I know. Isn't she beautiful?"_

_Mrs. Steinbaugh nodded. "What will the two of you do today?"_

_Claire shrugged. "I have no idea. Any suggestions?"_

_"Have your Leon take you both out again."_

_Claire's face fell a bit. She sighed. "Leon's gone."_

_Mrs. Steinbaugh looked at Claire with shock. "Gone? Where?"_

_Claire forced a smile. "He works for the government. He had to go back to work."_

_"Oh, my dear. I'm so sorry. You must miss him terribly."_

_Claire sighed and blinked back tears. "Yeah. The big lug kinda grows on you."_

_Mrs. Steinbaugh handed Claire a tissue from her purse. "You do love him, right?"_

_"So much," Claire replied with a little sniffle._

_"And he loves you?"_

_"Yes." _

_"Then he'll be back."_

_"Yes, Ma'am. He'll have a few days off next week."_

_"Good! Then you just take this time to enjoy your daughter."_

_"I will." Claire smiled and dabbed her eyes with the tissue. "I hate that I keep crying, but I just wish we got to see each other more often."_

_"Well, you'll see each other soon. In the meantime, until he gets back, you and Sherry should come stay at my inn one night this week."_

_Claire beamed. "I would love that! And I think Sherry and Pop-Tart would, too."_

_Mrs. Steinbaugh looked over at the young woman and her little dog. She chuckled. "Pop-Tart! You leave that poor girl alone! She doesn't want to rub your tummy all afternoon! They've got to get to the mall." She winked at Claire and walked over to take her leash from Sherry. _

_"We're going to the mall, Mom?"_

_"Yeeeahhh," Claire muttered uncertainly. "Is that . . . okay?"_

_"I'm a twenty-year-old woman, Mom. Why would I __**not **__want to go to the mall?"_

_Claire shrugged. 'I never did,' she thought. 'Unless you count going to Sears Auto for motorcycle parts.' She smiled at her daughter. Claire thought about how she'd been meaning to replace the blender she broke when she was sweeping the kitchen floor just before Thanksgiving. She was dancing with her broom to Queen's 'You're My Best Friend' when her 'dance partner' knocked the appliance off the counter. She flushed a little red with embarrassment. 'Not my most shining moment.' She smiled at Sherry. "Well, the mall it is then. I certainly could use a few things." _

_"And how. I've seen the clothes in your closet."_

_"Hey! Stay out of my closet! And what's wrong with my clothes?"_

_"Nothing. Just, you don't have anything . . . sexy . . . for Daddy."_

_"I'll have you know Leon thought I was __**very **__sexy in what I wore on Christmas Eve."_

_"Yeah, but that's like the only sexy thing you own."_

_"I have plenty of lingerie."_

_"Can't wear __**that**__ in public." Sherry smirked. "At least, you shouldn't, even though you probably do."_

_Claire chuckled. "Well, he loves my legs, and I have shorts out the wazoo, so there!"_

_"Uh . . . it's winter. Not exactly 'daisy-dukes' weather." She wrapped an arm around Claire's shoulders. "Look, Mom. You've seen how Daddy dresses. Even his t-shirts are Versace or Gucci or Dolce & Gabbana. __**Your **__t-shirts are three for five bucks at the Shirt Shack."_

_Claire sighed. She knew she should have gotten rid of that bag. It had the bargain spelled out right on the side. She shook her head. As much as she hated to admit it, Sherry was right. "Okay, fine. We'll __**both **__get a new wardrobe. How's that sound?"_

"_Awesome! Let's go!"_

_Claire went inside and came back out with car keys and her wallet. Claire tucked the men's style wallet in the back of her pants. She wasn't a 'purse type of girl'._

_She and Sherry got into her Shelby and they were off to Country Club Mall in LaVale, Maryland._

* * *

_Claire and Sherry exited Game Stop. Claire had bought Sherry a Wii and a few games, including a single player shooter adventure game. Claire kept forgetting the name. _

_"What's it called again?"_

_"Resident Evil 4."_

_"And what do you do in it again?"_

_"Kill stuff."_

_"And who's the hot dude on the cover again?"_

_Sherry groaned and rolled her eyes. "Just never mind." She looked to her left and gasped. "Orange Julius! I haven't had a hot dog since I was a kid! I'm starving. Wanna grab a snack?"_

_Claire adjusted all the bags in her hands. "Sure. I could use a sit down break."_

_The two women walked over to the food stand and ordered. Claire bought a Pomegranate Julius and a Reuben dog. Sherry got a Chicago dog and a classic Orange Julius._

_They had already been in the mall for five hours. They had bought plenty of clothes for both of them. Sherry's wardrobe came from Deb Shop, a women's clothing store with a very youthful clientele. Claire, looking for a slightly more mature look, shopped at The Bon-Ton and both women bought dresses for New Year's Eve in the dress department at JC Penney._

_Once they'd finished eating, Claire leaned back in her seat. "Sherry, can we buy our jewelry today and then maybe come back for shoes tomorrow? I'm kinda beat."_

_"Of course. Hey, wanna forego the jewelry, too until tomorrow, and just go see a movie before we leave instead?"_

_"Sure. What do you wanna see?"_

_"How do you feel about a Nicholas Cage movie?"_

_"Sure. He's a great actor."_

_"Cool. I wanna see 'National Treasure 2'."_

_"Okay. Did you see the first one. It was really good."_

_Sherry nodded. "I saw it on DVD with Dr. Bennett. She always did fun stuff with me. She was like a grandma. It's only fitting I see the sequel with the woman who's been Mom to me since my biological mother died." _

_Claire smiled. She was going to have to call Barry later that night. He needed to know what had happened to Patricia. Maybe once Sherry was settled back into her life, she would let him debrief her. Dr. Bennett deserved better than to just be presumed missing. She had died for the safety of the world. _

_Sherry took their trays to the trash can then returned to Claire to help with the bags. Her 'mother' smiled at her. "Let's take the bags to the car and then we'll go to the AMC Theatre. We'll do jewelry tomorrow like you said."_

_The two women watched the movie together, and then went home to rest until the next day. Shopping was hard work._

* * *

_Over the course of the next few days, Sherry and Claire bonded over girl time and shopping. Claire also took Sherry to pick out her car. She chose a used brown Honda with leopard print faux fur steering wheel and seat covers. Sherry dubbed the car "Sexual Chocolate". Claire laughed so hard, she almost wet herself. _

_Sherry drove them to the mall in Claire's Shelby that same day, with Claire teaching her how to drive stick. Claire winced a few times when Sherry made the clutch make some very . . . unhealthy sounds. _

_They both bought shoes for the holiday and for daily use from JC Penney, they bought a new blender for Claire from Kitchen Collections, and a journal from Waldenbooks for Sherry to record her thoughts in a constructive manner about all she'd suffered at the hands of Umbrella. Their last stop was Sears Auto Center. Claire bought a few tools and parts to work on her Harley and she got Sherry an emergency roadside kit. Of course, this was the only store at the mall where the owners knew Claire by name. After that, they skipped jewelry again and went to dinner at Wasabi, a hibachi-style restaurant._

_The following day, Sherry and Claire sat down to talk about Sherry's feelings about how Claire left Sherry and Leon in 1999. Claire was quiet as she let a tearful Sherry vent and yell about how much Claire's actions, and Claire's letter, had hurt her. She yelled about Leon's aloofness after Claire left, and then just as passionately defended him as the only parent to stay with her. At the end of the conversation, both women were in tears, but as Claire reassured her daughter, they were "good tears". They shared a bottle of red wine, and passed out together on the couch and loveseat in front of the TV, exhausted from their talk, and lulled by the drone of infomercials, the crackle of Claire's fireplace, and the twinkling of the lights on the Christmas tree._

_The last day before Leon's return, the girls went back to the mall for a day of pampering with Mrs. Steinbaugh and Mrs. Parker in tow. Mrs. Parker told Claire that her son was very taken with Sherry. Claire was polite in her response, but on the inside, she thought to herself there was no way that little pervert was coming anywhere near her daughter._

_The four women got their hair done at Holiday Hair, and their nails done at Nail One. Sherry went back to her blonde roots, yet kept it in shoulder length layers. Claire let the stylist give her a shampoo and a trim, but that was it. Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Steinbaugh both laughed at Claire's behavior._

"_Calm down, Dear. They just want to help you look your best for Leon."_

"_But Leon likes my hair long!" she whined. "I don't __**want **__a bob!" She glared at the hair stylist who'd tried to pressure her into that particular haircut. Her companions all laughed._

_Claire and Sherry finally made it to Kay Jewelers. Aside from jewelry for the holiday, Claire, still sporting a long ponytail, bought Sherry a gift from Kay Jewelers, and a gift for Leon. And that was only when the two older ladies wore Claire down about her gift to Leon for Christmas . . . they were not pleased. _

"_What did he get you, Claire?" Mrs. Steinbaugh asked._

"_This necklace, a ruby and diamond naval ring, and earrings to match." she pulled a small ruby heart pendant surrounded by diamonds from inside her sweater where it hung from a platinum chain._

"_Very romantic gifts, all of them," Mrs. Parker said. _

"_And remind us, Dear . . . ." Mrs. Steinbaugh added. "What did you get for him again?"_

_Claire sighed. "A beer pong table."_

_The two older women looked at each other, in equal parts disgust and disbelief. "A beer pong table," Mrs. Steinbaugh repeated. She paused. "If you don't get your ass in that jewelry store, and I mean now . . . !" She couldn't even finish her sentence, she was so appalled. She just shook her head and frowned like she meant to spank Claire like an unruly child. Claire walked slowly toward the jewelry store, her tail between her legs. "And don't you even __**think **__about coming out until you pick that man out something nice!" Mrs. Steinbaugh scolded._

_Claire lowered her head. "Yes, Ma'am."_

* * *

_Once Claire and Sherry picked out a cell phone for the latter, the Girls Day Out was done with the mall and picked up again at the bed & breakfast. Mrs. Parker had to make dinner for her family, so she took a rain-check. Sherry and Claire ate dinner with the widow Steinbaugh, and then shared a room at the inn. They gossiped about the other Umbrella survivors for a while, and then Sherry abruptly changed the subject._

"_You know, Mrs. Parker's son Kenny goes to University of Maryland Baltimore County," Sherry said to Claire as they lay in their matching Queen-sized beds._

_Claire looked at Sherry suspiciously. "Yeah? So?"_

"_So . . . it'll be good to know someone in Baltimore who's my own age. Besides, he's really cute."_

_Claire rolled her eyes. "Fine. Just don't let your dad hear you say that."_

"_Why?"_

_Claire did not want to tell her daughter that her current crush used to spy on her naked. "Well . . . let's just say something . . . happened a couple of years ago that hasn't happened since, but . . . well . . . Leon's just not so fond of Kenny. I'm not so sure how he'd take it if you two started dating."_

"_Is it the peeping thing?"_

_Claire's eyes got huge. "You know about that?"_

"_Yeah. Kenny told me. He said he used to peep at you dressing. He looked really ashamed when he said it, like he thought I already knew. Like he expected that you would have already warned me off him. But let's face it. You're very pretty, Mom. Beautiful, really. I know Daddy certainly thinks so. Well, Kenny does, too. I mean, it's no excuse for what he did, and he knows that, but he's a different person now." _

"_Wow. How comforting."_

"_Mom, don't be that way. He really didn't do it on purpose . . . at least, not at first. In fact, the first time he saw you was an accident. He was bird watching for biology class and the Baltimore oriole he was tracking landed on your window sill. He was focusing the telephoto lens on his dad's camera and then you walked into view behind the bird. You were in your towel from your shower. You took off the towel and you laid on the bed and . . . um, he says you . . . um, you masturbated." _

_The color drained from Claire's face. "He . . . He saw that. And took . . . pictures."_

_Sherry smiled. "No. He didn't take pictures. I thought that, too at first. I twisted his arm behind his back, but he swore he didn't even when I threatened to break it."_

_Claire smiled. "Your daddy taught you well."_

_Sherry giggled. "That he did. Anyway, Kenny said that watching you pleasure yourself was the hottest thing he'd ever seen, so he got a little obsessed with you. He was mortified when you caught him watching you with his telescope, but he couldn't stop even then." _

_Claire blushed hotly. "He actually told you about all that?" Sherry nodded. "Did he also tell you about what happened the last time Leon was here before he brought you home?"_

_Sherry started to laugh immediately. Claire started to laugh, too. Apparently, he had._

"_Let's just say Kenny got more than he bargained for that night. Daddy cleared up his little voyeurism urge, and replaced it with penis envy." They both laughed until they were red in the face. "Bottom line, Mom: he's really sorry." _

_Claire smirked. "Yeah, I'll bet." Sherry pouted. "Oh, for the love of . . . . Fine! He's forgiven! Now would you quit it with the bottom lip already?"_

_Sherry turned off the lip quiver and got up to walk confidently into the bathroom. "I still got it," she said._

_Claire smiled, and then closed her eyes for sleep._

* * *

"_How far away are you?"_

"_An hour, I think. There's a traffic jam, so I can't be sure. It won't be too much longer though."_

"_That's good."_

"_HI, DADDY!" Sherry yelled into the receiver. Claire winced as her ear was by the receiver at the time._

_Leon chuckled. "Hi, Sweetheart."_

_"Your Dad says 'hi'. I think. I'm deaf now, you know."_

_Sherry giggled and put in her ear buds before turning on her iPod that Leon had bought for her after they were released from quarantine._

"_Have you been spoiling my little girl?"_

"_Absolutely. Oh, and she's blonde again."_

_He chuckled. "No more Claire Junior?"_

"_Nope. But I'm cool with it. She's beautiful as a blonde."_

"_I know she's beautiful." He sighed. So did all the young men that saw her when the two were traveling to Claire's house . . . and the younger military police officers that watched over them during their quarantine. Chris had thought Leon's paternal rage was hilarious. He quickly changed the subject in lieu of dwelling. "So, need for me to pick anything up for either of you on my way to your house?"_

"_No. Sherry and I did the grocery shopping yesterday morning. We should be in good shape."_

"_Then can I pick up a bottle of Dom Perignon for tomorrow night?"_

"_Now, __**that **__you can do."_

"_Okay. I'll get the champagne and I'll see you soon."_

"_And you're really staying until January 2nd?"_

"_Yup. December 30th to the night of January 2nd. That's a month's vacation in agent years, so I hope you appreciate that I'm spending it with you."_

_She giggled. "I do, Honey. See you soon."_

"_See you in a bit, Claire."_

"_Oh! And Leon?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Thanks for keeping your promise to me, on Christmas and now."_

"_No worries, Claire. I'm just sorry I've given you so much reason to doubt my word over the past two years."_

"_Not anymore."_

_He smiled. "Thanks for giving me a second chance, Beautiful. Until I get there, just know that I can't wait to see you."_

"_I'll be waiting, Sweetheart."_

"_Not for long. Bye, Baby."_

"_Bye, Leon."_

* * *

_Claire wore one of her new outfits for when Leon arrived. Her top was a red, black and white plaid low Y-neck mock button down shirt. It was fitted to her body with an empire design, the top of the shirt being loose-fitting with a sexy open, cleavage-revealing neckline. The bottom being made of smocked tight-fitting elasticized cotton accentuated her tiny waist. Her jeans were black denim with a rhinestone fleur-de-lis on the right back pocket. They were tight over her backside and boot cut at the bottom. The way the jeans were cut, they made her legs look like they went on for days. She completed the look with pointy-toe three-inch stiletto heeled knee high boots. Her signature ponytail was nowhere to be seen as her hair fell dramatically in long layers over both shoulders, her compromise with the hair stylists from the mall. The overall look was casual and comfortable, but the little details made it very feminine and sexy._

_Sherry chose to wear a pair of faded jeans and a white hooded sweatshirt with the words 'Jersey Girl' printed in sky blue glittery letters. Leon and Sherry had landed in airport at Atlantic City on their way home to Claire, so Leon took Sherry to the boardwalk to reminisce on the last time the three of them were together. He'd spotted the sweatshirt and bought it for Sherry since she actually __**was **__a Jersey Girl. Sherry was born in New Jersey back when William and Annette were in graduate school at Princeton University. Sherry had been born at Princeton Medical Center. The Burkins had lived in New Jersey until Sherry was about four, when William was recruited by Wesker to work for Umbrella. Staying in Atlantic City with Leon and Claire years before had been one of the best times of her life because she felt like she was home. Now, she wore the shirt for two reasons: to thank her dad for buying it and to intentionally dress more casually than Claire to enhance the wow factor of Claire's ensemble . . . a little tip whispered in her ear by Mrs. Steinbaugh on Girls Day Out._

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

_The doorbell 'rang', and Sherry and Claire smiled at each other and raced downstairs. Claire stopped in the downstairs bathroom to double check her lipstick. Sherry whispered. "Wait a minute before you come out, Mom. I wanna see the look on his face when you blow his mind in that outfit. You should make an entrance."_

_Claire nodded and pulled a brush out of the medicine cabinet to give her hair a last minute bit of attention._

_Sherry walked to the door and looked out the peephole. Leon was on his cell phone, smiling as he spoke to someone. She opened the door and he beamed at her. _

"_Okay, Carlos. I have to go. Thanks again." There was a pause. "Aw, you're welcome, Buddy. I'm just glad that Mercedes had a nice birthday." Another pause. "Happy New Year to you too, Amigo. Via con Dios." Leon hit the end button and pocketed his phone. He smiled at his daughter and pulled her into a bear hug. "Hi, Short Stuff!"_

_She giggled and hugged him back. "Hi, Daddy. How was your work?"_

"_Tiring. Carlos is a worse black cloud than I am. I had to go on two search-and-rescue missions in the short time since you saw me. I feel like even my molecules have jet lag from all the plane travel." _

_She stepped back so he could enter. "Where'd you have to go?"_

_"Greece and Guam. A senator was being held in one facility, and his wife and son were being held in another." Leon removed his coat and hung it on one of the hooks by the front door._

_"Geez! You really __**were **__on a plane this whole time! What about your ankle?"_

_He bent to remove his shoes. The task had gotten easier over the past few days. "I've been subsisting on pain killers."_

_"Narcotics?"_

_"Afraid so."_

_"Prescription or . . . other stuff?"_

_"Prescription, of course. Come on, Sherry. You know I don't use illegal drugs."_

_"I know," she sighed in relief. "But didn't they make you too sleepy for the mission? I remember the Percocet used to knock you out when your shoulder was healing."_

_"It was a delicate balance, that's for sure. But I was careful not to take too much, and I supplemented with Motrin and Aleve to keep the swelling down." He sighed. "And honestly, it was the pain that was more exhausting than the pills back then. The Percocet only put me to sleep because the pain was no longer keeping me awake. My ankle didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as the healing process after getting shot."_

_Sherry nodded and hugged him again. "You must be so tired."_

_"Exhausted . . . and ready for a relaxing few days with my two favorite ladies." He hung up his coat and looked around. "Speaking of . . . where's your mother?"_

_"I'm right here." Claire walked out of the bathroom and strolled into the living room, making the entrance that Sherry had asked her for. _

_The desired effect was achieved. Leon's jaw dropped a little as his eyes traveled up and down her body. She smiled as she walked into his arms. He held her tightly and closed his eyes. Eventually, she tilted her head back then leaned up to kiss him adoringly._

_"I'll put the champagne away," Sherry said, grabbing the bottle from Leon's hand before he dropped it. Sherry smiled and shook her head before leaving them to have some privacy. They barely noticed as they deepened their kiss. _

_Finally, reluctantly, they parted to stare into each other's eyes._

_Leon took in her face, his own a masque of serious passion. "You look very beautiful."_

_She pushed his hair back so she could better see his eyes. "You look very handsome."_

_He smirked. "How's your period?"_

_She grinned and rolled her eyes. "Over for this month. How's your ankle?"_

_"Better." He slid his hands down her body and into the back pockets of her jeans. He gave her ass a gentle squeeze. "I like these jeans."_

_Claire slid her own hands down the back of __**his **__fitted long sleeve black and white baseball jersey, over the waist of his relaxed fit dark blue jeans, and into __**his **__back pockets. She gave his ass a firmer squeeze. "Likewise." She leaned her head into his chest and breathed deeply. "I love your cologne. I was sad when it faded out of my pillows."_

_"I'll send you a bottle you can spray around your bedroom."_

_She laughed. "It's not the same if it's not accented with the natural smell of your skin."_

_He shrugged. "I hear ya. I love your natural scent, too." He kissed her throat and took a whiff of her neck. "Although, I'm not gonna complain if you keep wearing that perfume. You smell good, Baby."_

_She smiled up at him and took his hand. "Come sit with me." He let her lead him into the living room. She looked down at his feet, watching his gait with concern as they walked to the couch. Finally, she looked up to smile into his eyes. "You really are better!"_

_He nodded. "It barely even hurts anymore. Mostly if I'm standing for too long. Otherwise, it's fine."_

_"I'm glad." _

_They sat on the sofa, and he pulled her legs into his lap. He looked down her body until he noticed her feet. He tugged on her pants legs so that he could better see her boots. "These are sexy, Baby. But I have to admit to a bit of shoe envy. Why do you get to keep your shoes on but I don't?"_

_"Because my boots have never been worn outdoors and are clean on the bottoms. Once they've been worn out that door, I'll start taking them off in the foyer or the kitchen."_

_"I see." He caressed her legs. He slid his hand all the way up her body and then caressed her cheek. He saw a little twinkle between her collarbones. He smiled. "You're wearing the necklace I gave you."_

_She smiled up at him. "Of course I am. It's beautiful. I haven't taken it off since you gave it to me." She kissed him and then pulled back and gasped. "Oh, my God! That reminds me! I almost forgot!" She got up off his lap and darted up the stairs. "Be right back!" she called back to him._

_He sighed and put a couch cushion over his erection a few seconds before Sherry came back into the living room from the kitchen._

_"You two get the hot nookie lovin' out of your system?"_

_"Some of it," he replied with a chuckle._

_Sherry plopped down on the couch and, before he could protest, dropped her head heavily onto the pillow in his lap. He winced and hissed. She sat up abruptly. "Uh . . . is that a . . . ?"_

_"Yes. Mind not doing that?"_

_She put her hands up and moved away from him on the couch. "Sorry."_

_He sighed. "No worries. I thought hiding it from you would be best. I keep forgetting you like to use me as a futon."_

_She giggled. Claire came back downstairs a moment later. "Hey, Mom! Did you know Daddy's got a hard-on?"_

_Claire smirked. "He'd better still have it." She sat by Leon, kissed him, and then dropped a small gift bag in his lap._

_"What's this?"_

_"It's a gift, Dumbass. What does it look like?"_

_Sherry cleared her throat. "__**Romantic **__gift . . . ." _

_Claire blushed. "Uh, I mean . . . it's a gift for you, Sweetheart. Merry Christmas."_

_Leon looked a little spooked by the second response. "Uh . . . you already got me a present, and Christmas is over."_

_"Then it's a New Year's present."_

_"A what?"_

_Sherry sighed loudly. "Would you just open the fucking bag?"_

_Claire looked at her and smirked. "Romantic gift, huh?"_

_"What? __**I'm**__ not dating him."_

_Her adoptive parents both chuckled and Leon put an arm around Claire and opened the bag with his free hand. Inside he found a beautiful silver-gray silk tie and a small jewelry box marked 'LSK'. He looked at Claire with surprise. She smiled and nodded towards the gifts._

_He picked up the tie and smiled when he read the small tag on the back. "This is a Versace tie, Baby, it's like a hundred bucks." He peered closer at the pattern in black thread that repeated in little diamonds on the tie. "Is that . . . are those my initials?" She nodded. "Then this tie cost way more than a hundred bucks!"_

_She shrugged. "You wear quality stuff. All designer, as I noticed the last couple times you've been here." She winked at Sherry. "I certainly wasn't going to buy you a tie from JC Penney. Besides, if I'm not gonna spend my money on my sweetheart, then who am I gonna spend it on?"_

_"Me," Sherry offered. _

_Claire laughed. "I already bought you a car, young lady . . . and a wardrobe . . . and an iPhone . . . and a Wii! You've gotten enough shit outta me."_

_"You bought her a car?"_

_"Yeah. The brown Honda outside with the slutty leopard interior. She named it Sexual Chocolate."_

_Leon looked at Sherry and quirked a brow._

_"What? I like Eddie Murphy movies from the '80s. It was either that or Axel Foley."_

_He rolled his eyes and looked at Claire. "__**I **__was gonna buy her a car, Baby."_

_"Beat you to it." She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. _

_He smirked at her. "Claire. I don't know if you know this, but Sherry's driving . . . ." Sherry began to say 'shut up' over and over while laughing. Leon ignored her. "Sherry's driving is God-awful. When we were preparing to leave Europe after our quarantine was over, she said she had her license and asked to drive the rental car we got in Paris. She wrecked it." Claire's eyes widened. "Since I make more than you, I'll pay the insurance. It'll likely end up costing more than the car."_

_Claire frowned at their daughter. "You drive badly?" Sherry nodded while smiling in chagrin. "I let you drive my Shelby to the mall . . . and you almost destroyed my clutch!" Leon winced as soon as Claire said Sherry had driven the Shelby. Claire noticed the look on his face and frowned even harder. "Are you telling me you could have wrecked my car?"_

_Sherry smiled guiltily. "We made it alive."_

_"By the grace of God if your father's to be believed!"_

_Sherry backed away and said, "Oh, would you look at the time?" She looked at her watchless wrist and darted up the stairs. "Gotta get ready for my date!"_

_Leon was laughing his head off. Claire glared at him. "You wanna pay the insurance? Knock yourself out. I'll keep the registration current."_

_"Deal." Leon reached into his gift bag and pulled out the box that bore his initials. "And I'll be the one needing the second job." He opened the box and immediately stopped smiling. He looked at Claire and then kissed her. "They're beautiful, Sweetheart. Thank you."_

_Inside the box was a pair of platinum cufflinks. One was a fleur-de-lis with a small diamond in the center, and the other was a claddagh with a heart cut diamond. Claire had split up a set of each type of cufflinks, which meant she had to basically buy both sets and throw away the extra ones from each pair. Since they cost a mint, the jeweler had monogrammed the box with Leon's initials for free. She had picked these out specifically to reflect Leon's French (from his mother) and Irish (from his father) heritages. Then she had gone to the Cyber Cafe in the mall and searched the on-line Versace store. She picked out the tie and had the Versace people personalize it for Leon then overnight it to her home. It had just arrived about two hours before Leon did._

_Claire smiled into their kiss. When he finally let her move away from him, she giggled, and then sighed and shook her head. Only Leon could reduce her to a giggling schoolgirl. "I'm glad you like them."_

_He grinned at her, causing her stomach to flip flop. "I don't like them, I love them." He shook his head in disbelief of the thoughtful gift. "God, my parents are gonna love you."_

_"I hope so." She kissed him again. "I feel like I know them already, we've spoken on the phone so much since you and I became an item again, even though they don't __**know **__we're an item." _

_"They suspect. And by the way, they feel the same way about you. They're always bugging me about bringing you to finally meet them. I keep telling them that I don't even get to see you myself. The last time we spoke, Dad threatened to introduce you to my cousin Connor."_

_"What's so great about your cousin?"_

_"He's a male model living in Milan. Right now, he's best known as the guy on the Calvin Klein underwear billboard in Times Square." Claire gave him the same incredulous look that his friends in the government always did when finding out that the agent had a cousin in fashion. He shrugged. "What can I say? Kennedy men have always been . . . pretty."_

_Claire chuckled. "You can tell your dad that __**your **__pretty ass is Kennedy enough for any woman."_

_"Blow me."_

_"Gladly."_

_He smirked as he admired his new cufflinks. "I can guess how much these cost you, too."_

_She frowned. "Why do you keep talking about money? It's not like I'm broke."_

_"No, but . . . I don't know. I guess I'm just not used to you buying expensive gifts for me. I don't want you to put yourself out on account of me."_

_She smiled. "I'm not. I just wanted to get you a gift that can be identified as being from your girlfriend, not just some dumb gift that everyone will think Ark bought."_

_He smiled at her. "I happen to like the beer pong table."_

_She shrugged and said, "Jill once told me that you shouldn't buy boyfriends un-romantic gifts. And then Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Steinbaugh threatened to kill me if I didn't get you something else after I told them what I got you for Christmas."_

_He chuckled. "Is __**that **__what this is all about? Claire . . . Honey . . . you know, I love the tie and the cufflinks, but I love my beer pong table, too. It's the kind of gift that __**I **__would know is from my girlfriend, because my girlfriend is the world's sexiest tomboy. And my friends happen to know it came from you, too. Ark immediately identified it as a classic Claire gift, and he knows we're dating. Then he and I, Carlos, Billy, Bruce, and even your brother broke the game in the same night. We got Carlos so drunk he almost missed his breakfast date in the morning. Mercedes was pissed!" They laughed. "Look, the tie, the cufflinks, I love them. They're a very romantic gift and thoughtful, because you had them made especially for me, but you didn't need to spend so much money on me just to prove a point. I think you're awesome as is, and you didn't need to try to be anyone but the girl you are . . . the girl I adore . . . the girl who bought me a beer pong game and would likely beat me at it." _

_She kissed him and whispered. "I'd slay you." _

_He smiled. "Now, that being said, I'm a hypocrite. I got another gift for you, too. Wait here." He got up from the couch and walked towards the hall closet. He opened the door and got down on his knees. _

_She looked surprised. "But you already got me this necklace, and my earrings, and the naval ring. Plus, you paid for everything over Christmas and brought me back our Sherry." _

_"Yeah, yeah. Ah ha. There it is." He pulled out a large gift bag from her closet and brought it over to her. _

_She gasped. It was a big bag. "Where did that come from? You didn't have that when you came in." _

_"I hid gifts for you all over the house on Christmas Eve while you were sleeping. I'm surprised you haven't found them all." _

_She beamed and opened the bag. "Is __**that**__ how those bath oils and bath beads ended up in my master bathroom? I thought I bought it then forgot about ever seeing them before. I was ready to have my head examined!" Leon chuckled as she pulled the gift out to get a better look. Inside the bag was a very feminine fitted black leather motorcycle jacket with a graphic on the back and a black, pink, and white motorcycle helmet to match. The graphic on the jacket was a beautiful tattoo art picture of Claire in a sexy torn up pink dress with a handgun in her hand and the words 'KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE' in white above the picture and 'SWEET LADY' in pink below it, referencing two different Queen songs. The sleeves of the jacket had an identical pink and white tribal graphic floral pattern down both sides that was mimicked around the circumference of the helmet._

_She looked at him in awe and said, "They're beautiful, Sweetheart," in almost the same way as he had when he'd thanked her for the cufflinks. _

_He accepted her kiss and pulled her into a tight hug. "You just better do what the jacket says. I don't ever want to know the pain Chris feels again." _

_"What pain?"_

_"The pain of losing Jill."_

_Her face fell for a moment, and then she just looked confused. "Wait . . . when did I ever make you feel Chris's pain?" _

_"When I had to listen to you being caught in that explosion at WilPharma right before your cell phone went dead." _

_She welled up and hugged him. "I never knew how much that upset you."_

_"Of course it upset me. I thought I'd lost you. I thought I failed you." _

_She kissed him soundly several times and then hugged him tightly. "I'll do my best to never put you through that again."_

_They held each other for several minutes, again sharing soft kisses and gentle caresses. Claire moved the pillow that hid his 'excitement' over seeing her again. She was about to straddle his lap when he stopped her. _

_"Not yet. Wait until Sherry leaves on her date."_

_Claire realized that she needed to tell Leon __**who**__ Sherry's date was before he arrived. "Leon . . . ." She decided to stall. "Uh . . . Sherry got you a present, too."_

_"She did? With what money?"_

_"Okay. I paid for it, but she picked it out for you."_

_He smiled. "SHERRY!" he yelled._

_"YEAH?"_

_"DID YOU GET ME A PRESENT?"_

_"YEAH! IT'S UNDER THE TREE! MOM KNOWS WHERE IT IS! MERRY CHRISTMAS!"_

_"THANK YOU!"_

_"YOU'RE WELCOME! THANKS AGAIN FOR THE DIAMOND STUDS AND THE TENNIS BRACELET . . . AND THE JERSEY GIRL SWEATSHIRT!"_

_"NO WORRIES!"_

_While they shouted back and forth. Claire got up from Leon's lap and reached under the tree. She pulled out a flat box and a pink and black leopard print gift bag that was taped closed._

_"This is for you." She handed him the box. "And I have no idea what this is." She looked at the bag curiously._

_Leon accepted the box and snatched the bag away from her. "It's another one of the gifts I hid for you. You should wait to open it until Sherry leaves." He got up and hid it even further under the tree."_

_"Okay. Pervert."_

_He smirked. "Guilty as charged." He sat on the couch beside her again. He opened the box to find an autographed photo of Jesse Owens winning the gold medal at the Olympics. The date of the signature was March 8, 1980, just a couple weeks before Jesse had died." He looked at Claire in disbelief. "This is authentic. I know his signature anywhere. I've been trying to buy a photo signed by Jesse Owens for years."_

_She smiled. "Yeah. You must have told Sherry. She saw it sitting in the window of BT Sports Memorabilia in the mall. The owner must not know his sports history. This is probably one of the last autographs Jesse ever signed. It's worth a fortune. I was able to convince him it was a fake and bought it for fifty bucks." _

_Leon beamed proudly at his girlfriend then looked back at the picture. "You know, he was from Cleveland?"_

_"Your hometown. Yeah, I know. Born in Alabama, raised in Cleveland. He broke the world record while he was still living in Ohio." Leon smiled. He loved dating a tomboy._

_Sherry came downstairs. "Hey, who's Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo is outside? That thing's a beauty!" _

_Claire smiled and tilted her head toward Leon. "It's his." She got up and raced to the window. She turned to Leon with such a joyful smile, he couldn't help but smile in return. Leon had driven to Cumberland this time in the same midnight blue Jeep he was driving when he came to see her in 1999 after their four-month separation. "You still have that thing? The 2000 model you drove when you first visited me here?" she asked excitedly. "That monster drives like a dream."_

_"Of course I still have it. After European roadsters, I love my jeeps the best. My Laredo has certainly stood the test of time. I brought it with me this time because we need to get stuff for Sherry's dorm room to take to Baltimore. The Mazerati and your Shelby are too small for all her stuff."_

_Claire smiled. "Take us for a spin later?"_

_Sherry raised her hand. "Uh, he can take __**you **__for a spin. I have a date, remember?"_

_Leon smirked. "A date, huh? So I heard." _

_Sherry rolled her eyes. "Yes. So you and Mom can have some privacy for one night, I'm going on a date with a nice guy from the neighborhood. It's not a big deal."_

_He smiled. "Okay. And Sherry, thank you again for the autographed picture. I'm blown away."_

_She smiled. "Mom bought it, I just spotted it. And she haggled down that idiot store manager like she was using the Jedi mind trick or something." Sherry waved her hand like Obi-Wan Kenobi and said, "This is not the autograph we're looking for. You don't need to see my I.D. with my credit card."_

_Claire smiled. "It's your gift, Honey. I won't share the credit."_

_Sherry chuckled. "It must be a __**great **__gift, too. Dad's woody is gone. Did you bust a load over my present?"_

_Leon's face paled and Claire frowned. She exclaimed, "Seriously, were you kept in the same cell as Carlos the time Umbrella captured him for like three months?"_

_Sherry giggled. "No, but I was around guards all the time. Ex-military. They had filthy mouths, and now so do I."_

_Leon rolled his eyes. "For your information, I was just distracted. I didn't . . . ."_

_Claire mushed him in the face. "Her question was rhetorical! Don't corrupt her any further with your filthy mouth!"_

_He made a face that was almost a pout. "She started it. Challenged my stamina again."_

_Claire giggled. "There's no need to defend it. You and I both know your stamina needs a sedative. And I expect to be sore by morning."_

_"Oh, sure. You get to corrupt her, but I don't."_

_Sherry was laughing her ass off when the doorbell rang. _

_GET DA DOOR, MUTHAFUCKA!_

"_Oh, good! My date's here!"_

_Claire's face flushed bright red. "Uh . . . ."_

_Leon smiled. "Great. Can't wait to meet him."_

"_Uh, Leon . . . Honey. There's something I should tell you about Sherry's date."_

"_Tell me later. Here he comes."_

_Leon's smile then immediately faded when Kenny Parker walked into the living room._

"_Now, Leon . . . ."_

"_YOU!" He pushed Claire away gently and got up. He stood a couple inches taller than Kenny, but he was profoundly more muscular. _

"_Leon, please. It's okay."_

_Kenny saw Leon and immediately started to blush. He could remember seeing the agent erect and naked in Claire's bedroom window, scowling murderously at him. _

"_H-Hi, Mr. Kennedy. Sherry has told me s-s-so much about you."_

_Leon's frown deepened, but he let Claire lead him back to the sofa. He turned an angry glare on Kenny. "I'll bet she did. Did she tell you how good a shot I am?"_

"_Leon!" Claire scolded._

_Sherry chuckled. "Alright. As amusing as all this is, we have a party to get to. Come on, Kenny."_

_Kenny took her coat and was about to help her on with it, but instead he told her, "Sherry, your shirt has a lipstick stain on it."_

_Sherry looked down at her gray button down blouse. Sure enough, there was lipstick on it. "Oh no! I can't go out like this! Mom, could you help me pick out a new shirt? Something that'll still match the black jeans?"_

_Claire nodded. "Sure thing, Baby." She turned to Leon and gave him a very disapproving frown. "That boy better still be in one piece . . . __**and **__breathing . . . __**and **__conscious . . . __**and **__in no pain when we come back, or you're gonna be a lonely son of a bitch tonight. I happen to like his mother a lot. Got it?"_

_Leon sighed irritably. "Fine."_

_The girls left the room. Before she left, Claire turned to frown at her boyfriend. She pointed her middle and index fingers at her eyes, then her index finger at Leon. _

"_Yeah, yeah. You're watching me. I won't kill him. Now, go already."_

_She left the room, and Kenny immediately began to sweat._

_He stared at Leon fearfully for a while. Finally, he worked up the courage to speak. "Look, Mr. Kennedy. I know you think I'm just a dirty voyeur, but I haven't done that in a long time."_

"_Not long enough."_

"_Um . . . . well . . . the time you caught me was the last time. You looked about ready to kill me. I decided to stop after that. I know you're angry. You have every right to be, but I really do like Sherry. And I shouldn't have watched Ms. Redfield, but she was so sexy."_

"_You're not winning brownie points with me here, Kid."_

_Kenny shivered a little when he heard a gun cock and couldn't see where the sound came from. "Um . . . I'm sorry. I'm just saying, I know I shouldn't have done it, and you certainly taught me a valuable lesson that night. Ms. Redfield has a __**big **__boyfriend, and he'll probably kill me if I do that again."_

_Leon frowned at him. "Look, I'm not the kind of dad who limits his kid's activities. Sherry's an adult now, and she can hang out with whomever she wants. But __**you**_ _are a little perverted punk. If you ever treat Sherry with the disrespect that you treated her mother . . . ."_

"_Never, Mr. Kennedy. Never, I promise."_

_Leon exhaled through his nose. "Interrupt me again, and I'll feed you my fist." Kenny nodded but didn't say a word. "If you ever treat my daughter in the sexist and disrespectful manner in which you treated my Claire, I will shoot you in the balls, gut, and face in that order, and then hide the body."_

_Kenny swallowed past the lump in his throat and nodded. "I promise, Sir."_

_Leon sighed. He went into the kitchen and returned with a glass of bourbon. He was sending his daughter out on a date with a known peeping tom. He needed a stiff drink._

_Sherry ran down the stairs with Claire on her heels. Sherry did a little turn so Kenny could see her new shirt. It was a horizontal striped fitted V-neck cardigan in black, gray, and white over a low cut white tee. She kept her black jeans on when she changed. _

_Kenny smiled. "You look amazing, Sherry. Ready to go?" He held out her black fitted pea coat._

_She smiled and let him help her on with it. "Yup. Just let me say good night to the parental units." _

_Kenny nodded. "I'll be right outside. My car's in Ms. Redfield's driveway."_

"_Okay." When Kenny was gone, Sherry walked over to Claire and hugged her._

"_Have a nice time, Sweetpea." _

"_Thanks, Mom." She hugged Leon. He held her a little tighter than was necessary. "Dad . . . Dad . . . Daddy!" He finally released her. "Twenty years old, remember?" She rolled her eyes._

_He sighed. "Yes. Twenty. I know."_

_She tilted her head. "Daddy, you know the only reason I'm going on this date is so you guys can go on one, too."_

_Leon brightened. "Really? So you don't actually like him?"_

_Sherry looked at Claire as if to say, 'you weren't kidding . . . he really hates him'. Claire returned a look that said, 'told you so'. Sherry smiled innocently at Leon. "Daddy, I barely know him, but he's a nice enough guy. And yes, I know about the whole peeping thing, but I believe in second chances." She kissed each of them on the cheek. "Now, I fully expect the two of you to either be out on the town or naked and unconscious by the time I get back. Kenny's cousin in D.C. is throwing a party. The round trip ride alone is six hours, so I'll see you both in the morning. If I have any problems, I'll call Uncle Chris." Leon nodded. That was fair. "Well, I'm off. Have fun you two." She winked at Claire, who winked in return. Little did Leon know, the two women had decided that Leon would accept Kenny better at first if he thought Sherry wasn't really interested. Apparently, it had worked._

_After Sherry left, Claire got up from the sofa and reached under the Christmas tree. Leon chuckled and pulled her away from the mystery gift bag by her legs. _

"_Uh unh. You gotta earn that gift, Missy."_

_She struggled to get out of his grip. She was fast, small and agile. She slipped from his grasp ten times before he finally just plopped her on the floor and stretched out on top of her. _

"_Oh, my God!" she groaned. "You're so fucking heavy!"_

"_Promise to stop going for the gift and I'll let you up. Break your word, and the next time I lay on top of you, I'll go to sleep."_

_She frowned. "Fine. I promise. Now get off me, Tubby." He smirked and got up before lifting her to her feet. She smiled innocently up at him, and then ducked and rolled toward the tree. She grabbed the bag and yelled, "Sucka!" before darting for the kitchen. Leon was hot on her heels, and with his greater stride length, he quickly overtook her. He lifted her with one arm and took the bag from her, holding it out of her reach. He tossed it under the tree, picked up a loose roll of ribbon, said, "This will do nicely," and then carried her over to her computer desk. He put her in the chair and tied her arms behind her with expert precision and speed._

"_Hey! What the hell, Leon?"_

"_That's Agent Kennedy to you, thief. You will admit to trying to steal the secret package, Ms. Redfield . . . ." He smirked. ". . . . or suffer the consequences."_

_Claire quirked a brow and then returned his subtle smirk. "I'll admit to nothing, Agent Kennedy."_

_Leon smiled. "We shall see about that, Ms. Redfield."_

_He dragged her, chair and all, over to the couch. He sat down and then spun her around so she was facing away from him. He placed his hands on her shoulders and slowly kneaded her muscles._

"_Mmmm," she moaned._

_He kissed her throat. "Ready to talk?" he whispered against her cheek._

"_Not on your life," she sighed._

_He kissed her shoulder and slid his hands down her torso onto her breasts. She leaned her head back and moaned quietly. _

"_How about now?" _

_She shook her head and gave him an innocent smile. He chuckled. "Fine. If you won't talk . . . you will scream." _

_His eyes narrowed. Her eyes widened. _

_He turned her chair around. He pulled her closer and pushed her legs apart. She stared into his eyes and licked her lips. He unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her legs. He reached under each pant leg and pulled off her boots. "These are hot, Baby," he broke character long enough to tell her. The boots were tight to her calves and went all the way up to her knees._

"_I bought them because I thought they would turn you on."_

_He finished removing her jeans and then caressed her legs. "Well, they do." He lifted her shirt up and over her head. Due to her restraints, it got caught on her upper arms. _

"_That's kind of uncomfortable, Leon." _

_He broke character again. "Is it? I'm sorry, Baby. Give me a second." He pulled a large Bowie knife from under his pant leg and cut the ribbon holding her in place. The shirt fell off her arms. He rubbed her upper arms and pulled her into a hug. "Better?"_

_She smiled and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of him holding her. "Much better. Now tie me back up. This was just getting good."_

_He smirked and did as she ordered. He sat back down on the sofa and pulled her close again. "Now then, where was I? Oh, yeah. I remember." He reached out and slowly rubbed her through her panties. She moaned and closed her eyes. He kissed her neck. She turned toward him while he teased her pulse point and licked his earlobe. He shivered and leaned back to look at her. He caressed her over her entire torso. "So sexy," he muttered. "Missed you, Baby." He leaned forward and reached behind her to undo her bra. _

"_Missed you, too." She moaned as he pushed the bra cups up off her breasts and took her left nipple between his lips._

"_Baby? How much do you like this bra?" he muttered against her breast._

_She shrugged. "Eh. It'll do."_

"_Cool." He pulled the knife again and cut the bra from her torso. That made Claire a little wet. He went right back to teasing her body, caressing her crotch and suckling her nipples. Leon leaned back and teased her lips with his own. "Last chance to talk, Ms. Redfield."_

_She smiled. "You will never make me talk, Agent Kennedy."_

_He smiled in return. "I have ways of making you talk, Ms. Redfield." _

_He slid his hands up her legs and then pulled her panties down to just above her feet. He left her legs bound together at the ankles but still able to be pushed apart at the hips. He got down on the floor and spread her thighs then kissed the inside of each. "Last chance," he taunted, his breathy warning wafting across her naked sex, making her shiver. _

"_Oh, God," was her only reply._

_He smirked. "You were warned." He kissed her then knelt to taste her._

_Claire tossed her head back and moaned loudly. Leon took the encouragement as a good sign and teased her slit with his index and middle fingers. When she trembled, he pushed the tips of his fingers inside her. She cried out. "Ohhhh!"_

_He pushed his fingers deeper. The louder she moaned, the deeper he probed her sex. She began to thrust her hips forward on the chair. It took her less than ten minutes to find a powerful release._

_Once she'd had her first orgasm, Leon smiled and extricated his fingers from her wetness. "Your response to the torture is most intriguing, Ms. Redfield. Perhaps I will let you see the contents of the package after all. Surely it will be the instrument of your eventual downfall."_

_She panted in her afterglow and watched him reach under the tree again. "Leon . . . I'm done. I can't take anymore. I give."_

_He smiled and pulled out the gift bag. He cut the Scotch tape holding it closed with his knife, and then pulled out its contents. "We'll stop when I say so." He turned on the gift, which emitted a soft buzzing sound._

_Claire took one look at the gift and laughed breathlessly. "All that trouble over a pink leopard print vibrator. And it matches the gift bag!" She laughed even harder._

_Leon chuckled. "Surprise. Merry Christmas."_

"_Thanks for the lovely and Christian present on Jesus's birthday. Now, let me up."_

"_No."_

_She frowned. "Seriously, untie me."_

_He smirked. "Seriously . . . no."_

"_Don't be a dick, Leon. Let me up."_

"_Orgasm first . . . __**then **__freedom."_

_Claire chuckled. "Fine. But hurry up. I want to go on a date. You still owe me two dates for my virginity."_

_He smiled and kissed her. "Don't worry this won't take long. Like I said . . . ." He placed the vibrator on her left inner thigh and rubbed her skin in circles. ". . . . if you won't talk . . . you will scream." He centered the vibrator over her clit. _

_Scream was an understatement for the sound that came out of Claire's mouth for the next five minutes._

* * *

_Once Claire finished showering, she and Leon lay in each other's arms on the sofa. She was only wearing a towel while lying on top her boyfriend, who was himself stretched out on his back but still fully clothed. _

"_You cold, Baby?" he asked while caressing the cool skin on her back._

_She shook her head. "Not right now. You keep me warm."_

_He smiled. "Ready to go out soon?"_

"_I can be ready in about twenty minutes."_

_He slapped her ass. "Well then, hurry up and get dressed. We'll grab dinner and then have a few drinks."_

_She got up off Leon and walked upstairs to get dressed. _

_As promised, in twenty minutes she walked back downstairs fully clothed with freshened natural makeup and sexily tousled hair._

"_You look like you just got out of my bed." _

_She smirked. "Complaining?"_

"_Not on your life." He looked down at her outfit. It was simple, but far from discreet. "Everyone's gonna know I'll be fucking you tonight."_

"_That's the general idea."_

"_You'll be cold."_

_She walked into his arms. "Not if you keep warming me up." She pecked his lips then grabbed her leather jacket that he'd bought for her. _

_He looked down at her backside in those too-tight jeans and smirked. He caressed her rear and picked up his coat. "Let's go then."_

_He took one last look at Claire's shirt before she zipped her jacket. It was a long-sleeved varsity-style cardigan with an attached inner vest. The vest, however, was just a tight strip of fabric, fitting sort of like a bandeau, with three buttons down the front. The little slate gray vest just barely covered her breasts and bra, leaving her entire cleavage and belly uncovered. Her ruby naval ring glittered in the Christmas lights. The matching necklace also twinkled in red and white against the porcelain skin between her collarbones. His groin tightened at the sight of so much skin unabashedly exposed by his sweetheart. _

"_Ready?" she asked, pulling him from his trance by zipping her jacket._

"_Yeah. Where do you want to eat?"_

"_How about Mrs. Steinbaugh's inn? Dinner should just be starting, and she doesn't mind casual attire. In fact, I've always wanted to bring a date to her dining room. She's got a wonderful prix fixe menu for romantic dinners for two. She always says that couples should be able to eat an expensive romantic meal without breaking the poor guy's bank. It's a great price and the food is amazing. As good as anything I've ever had in a five-star restaurant."_

_"She has a good chef?"_

_"She __**is **__a chef. She used to own this restaurant in Baltimore. It was really upscale." Claire chuckled. "She used to always try to get me to eat there, but I told her I couldn't afford to. Then one day, TerraSave was doing a benefit, and we held it at B & L S, but I got the flu and missed it!"_

_Leon smiled. "B & L S? I know that place. I ate there once with my g- . . . uh . . . um . . . that's not important." _

_Claire chuckled. "Another woman?"_

_He looked guilty. "Sorry. Didn't think before I spoke."_

_"Not a problem. I know . . . I screwed up and broke us up. Lorreli closed it about a year after I pushed you out of my life, so you must have taken your girlfriend there pretty soon after you and I ended it."_

_"No, it wasn't like that, really. I never had an actual girlfriend after you." _

_"Leon, it's okay. You started to say 'my girlfriend'. I know you dated a lot of other women while we were apart."_

_"Okay, I __**was **__gonna say girlfriend, but I . . . she . . . Claire, she was a friend. She was an older woman I made an emotional connection with, but we weren't like . . . you and me. See, she was beautiful and lonely and she met me in a bar and wanted me to go on a date with her. There was this incredible sadness about her that made me want to say yes. But it was strictly platonic. We went out to expensive restaurants, she taught me to appreciate the finer things. She taught me about designer clothes and I treated her like a girlfriend. She just wanted me to hold her at night. Her husband had left her for a younger woman, and she just missed having a man in her bed. We slept together, and I kissed her, but we never even had sex."_

_Claire's face fell a little. "That's so sad . . . but what you did for her was so sweet. How did it end?"_

_He smiled. "She met a nice guy, a rich retiree whose wife left him, too. They understood each other's pain and healed together. She was so happy." Leon smiled at Claire and shrugged. "I was just glad I was able to give her some small measure of happiness, too."_

_Claire kissed him. "That's because you're a wonderful man." She kissed him again and grabbed her house key off the foyer table. "So how was the food at B & L S?"_

_"The food was fantastic. I was bummed when it closed." He buttoned his coat and opened the door for Claire. "Why'd Mrs. Steinbaugh close it?"_

_"Her husband. The name of the restaurant stood for Bill & Lorreli Steinbaugh. Bill was diagnosed with inoperable metastatic colon cancer seven years ago. They did everything they could to save him. I mean he was only fifty-five. She closed the restaurant and sold the property to help pay his medical bills. She was going to sell one of their two childhood homes here in Cumberland. Bill begged her not to, and told her to just use the life insurance once he passed to pay the bill instead. He made her promise to turn his home, the larger of the two houses, into a new restaurant, still based on romance like her last restaurant. He died a week later. She continued to live in the smaller home, her childhood home, which they lived in as a couple because it was more intimate. Then she got a small business loan and created the Cumberland Inn from the other house."_

_"Poor Lorreli."_

_"I know. They were such romantics." She closed the door behind them and locked it. "So what do you say? Cumberland Inn for dinner?"_

_He smiled and nodded. "Sure. Even without the story and her having been the chef at such a great restaurant, I really like Mrs. Steinbaugh."_

_Claire chuckled and took Leon's hand. "She really likes you, too . . . __**big **__man."_

* * *

_The Cumberland Inn menu's "Romantic Dinner for Two" would have been wonderful on its own, but Lorreli didn't want to give her neighbor and her date just what she gave everyone else. She doted on them, and cooked their dinner personally, shooing her head chef away from part of the kitchen that she used solely for cooking Claire and Leon's meal. She told them it was on her, but Leon insisted on paying at least the prix fixe._

_Leon's money should have bought two appetizers, two entrees with a salad for two, and two desserts, all served in the middle of the table as they were meant for couples to share everything and feed each other. Instead, Lorreli gave them enough food to feed three people. The three appetizers were puff pastries filled with a buttery crab filling; salmon roe, beluga caviar, osetra caviar, and wasabi caviar on blinis with crème fraiche; and goose liver pate on toast points. For entrees, they had seared scallops on a bed of lemon artichoke risotto, cassoulet, and homemade linguini with bolognase sauce. The salad that came with the entrees was still just big enough for two, but at the end of the entree course, Mrs. Steinbaugh sent out a salad made of julienned seedless cucumbers in mint vinaigrette as a palate cleanser. The dessert course was chocolate lava cake with homemade vanilla bean gelato, creme brulee with winter berries, and a mock caviar dessert that Lorreli used to make at B & L S. It was served with little rounds of crepes cut with a cookie cutter to look like blinis, mascarpone cheese to represent crème fraiche, and sweet 'caviar' made using molecular gastronomy techniques. Lorreli used calcium chloride and sodium alginate to make little pearls from blood orange juice (to mimic the dark pink color of salmon roe), blackberry juice (to mimic black beluga caviar), chocolate egg cream (to mimic brownish gray osetra caviar), and limeade cilantro puree with a few splashes of jalapeno hot sauce (to mimic both the bright green color and spicy bite of wasabi caviar)._

_"Dude," Claire said as she and Leon walked to the jeep. "I'm gettin' me a molecular gastronomy kit!"_

_Leon smirked as he carried their take-out container around to the back of the jeep. "Yeah, it's a pretty cool cooking method." Lorreli had provided them with some parting treats to eat in bed after sex. Literally . . . that's why she gave it to them . . . she even wrote it on the box in black Sharpie . . . 'FOR AFTER SEX TO EAT IN BED. GET SOME FOR ME. LOVE, LORRELI'. The box contained chocolate covered strawberries, another order of the sweet caviar dessert, and a cheese plate including brie, gouda, stilton, goat cheese, taleggio, fresh crusty bread, water crackers, and parmesan crisps. Leon placed their post-coital snacks in the cargo trunk of the jeep. "Maybe I'll get you that kit for Valentine's Day."_

_Claire chuckled. "Oh, my God! I'll be making everything in my fridge into fake caviar!" They both laughed as they strapped into their seat belts. Claire leaned across her seat to kiss Leon. "Thank you for dinner, Sweetheart."_

_He smiled. "You're welcome. Sorry it took so long to get to our second date."_

_She grinned. "That's alright. I know you've been busy. I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time over Christmas. Although I'm always unhappy if you have to cancel a visit, I usually would never give you such a hard time about it."_

_"No worries. You were right to let me know how you feel."_

_She smiled and caressed his hand on the shifter. She changed the subject. This night was about them enjoying each other's company, not making her lover feel guilty. Visits or no visits, Leon was a great boyfriend. "So where are we going for drinks?"_

_He shrugged. "I don't know this town as well as you. You had a great suggestion for dinner. Why don't you pick out the bar?"_

_She smiled. "Okay. There's a great bowling alley with rock music and a killer bar next door with a female rock band that plays covers. They're about fifty miles from here, but it's a pretty awesome couple of spots to hang out. And that will give us a chance to catch up some more during a nice long drive. Wanna go?"_

_"Sounds like a plan." He put the jeep in gear and they were off._

* * *

_After bowling two games both ending in tie scores, Leon and Claire decided to go to the bar for a few drinks. They both turned heads as the most attractive couple that entered the bar. It was funny at first to them how everyone was drooling over them, but when each one of them went to the restroom, and the other was propositioned aggressively by the opposite sex, it got old fast._

_Leon was the first to go to the restroom. Before he left, he ordered a fresh Guinness stout to replace the one he'd just drank. When he returned, he found another man sitting on his barstool, hitting on his girlfriend . . . and drinking his beer. He narrowed his eyes and walked silently over to stand behind the soon-to-be-dead man. _

_When he approached, Claire lowered her hand behind her and spoke to him in sign language. __"Don't worry. Under control."__ He smirked. Claire could handle it. That still didn't mean he wasn't about to put the hurt on 'Casanova'. Still, he stopped about a foot behind his attempted usurper and crossed his arms across his chest. He just listened to this loser try to chat up his Claire. A sadder pick up artist had never been seen._

_"Come on, Red. Give me your number."_

_"For the thousandth time, no."_

_"Why not?"_

_"I'm here with someone."_

_"I don't care about your fucking man. He looks gay."_

_Claire smirked. "Trust me, he's far from gay."_

_"Yeah right! Look how he dresses!"_

_"Like a gentleman?"_

_"No! Like a pussy!"_

_"So, a gentleman is a pussy?"_

_"Hell, yeah! You need a real man, Baby!"_

_"A real man is a man who's not a gentleman? So, what? You're gonna be the opposite of a gentleman, and that's what you think I'll like? What are you gonna do to win me away from Leon? Smack me around?"_

_"Not if you don't deserve a good smack." He used his finger to move her hair away from her face. "Now, let me buy you a drink, Gorgeous."_

_"Not unless I deserve a good smack. Hm. Charming," she answered sarcastically. "Well, you can't buy me a drink, but you can buy Leon a drink."_

_"What the fuck would I wanna do that for?"_

_"So he doesn't kick your ass when he gets back here and realizes you drank his beer."_

_"Fuck his pussy ass beer! I'll make your punk man buy __**all **__my drinks tonight!" He leaned close to Claire and whispered in her ear. "Now, come on, Baby. Let's get outta here. You know I'll treat that fine ass body right."_

_Claire rolled her eyes and pushed him away. "Number one, no. Number two, you just told me you smack women around so no I __**don't **__know you'll treat me right. Number three, get your breath out of my face. It smells like number two."_

_"You didn't seem to mind beer breath when you were all over your gay boyfriend."_

_"It's not the beer. Your breath smells like limburger cheese and cat turds."_

_He frowned and put his finger in her face. "You watch your mouth! Just 'cause you're sexy, don't think I won't pimp slap your ass."_

_Claire turned toward him and spoke very menacingly. "Either get that finger out of my face, or I'll break it off and shove it up your ass."_

_He snickered and said, "Oh, you want my finger outta your face? Maybe you want it somewhere else on your body." He moved his finger down to her left breast and stuck it inside the vest, trying to pull it open to look inside. Claire took a sip of her vodka tonic, and then grabbed the man's finger and snapped it. "Damn. Didn't break off. Guess I'll have to shove my foot up your ass instead."_

_"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" He clutched his right hand and started to scream at Claire. "YOU FUCKIN' BITCH! YOU FILTHY WHORE! I'LL FUCKIN' BEAT THE SHIT OUTTA YOU! BUT FIRST I'M GONNA DRAG YOU OUTTA HERE BY YOUR FUCKIN' HAIR AND FUCK YOU ON THE HOOD OF YOUR BOYFRIEND'S CAR!" He grabbed Claire's arm and tried to pull her from her seat. _

_Claire easily resisted him and rolled her eyes. "You're not tall enough to fuck __**anyone **__on the hood of a Jeep Grand Cherokee." She shook her head and yanked her arm out of his grip. "You know, I could easily take care of this, but I think Leon has been dying to harm you, so . . . Sweetheart, could you get rid of this loser for me?"_

_Leon responded behind their date invader, "With pleasure." He grabbed the bar stool and yanked it out from under the man, who crashed to the floor. The other man got up and tried to stand toe to toe with Leon, but at maybe five-seven, he was dwarfed by the six-two government agent. _

_"You wanna do something, big man?"_

_"__**Very **__big," Claire muttered before sipping her drink._

_Leon smirked and dodged the punch the man threw and grabbed him by the back of the collar. He lifted him off the floor and carried him to the entryway of the bar. He opened the door and threw him outside. The girl band members all laughed and then started playing 'U + Ur Hand' by Pink. Claire cracked up. _

_Leon started to return to the bar, but then he stopped short. "Oh, wait. Almost forgot." Leon bent toward the man who tried to scramble away from Leon, but Leon caught him by his belt and dragged him back. He pulled the man's wallet and took the money to pay for the stolen Guinness._

_"Thief! This prick is robbing me! Police!"_

_Leon smirked and dropped his wallet onto his back. Then he slapped him in the back of the head. "Go sleep it off man. You come back in that bar tonight or come near my girlfriend again, and I'll __**put **__you to sleep." He then pocketed the cash he took and went back inside. _

_Claire smiled at him as he sat down again. "I take it my unrequited love is gone?"_

_Leon nodded. "If he knows what's good for him." He signaled the bartender. "Another Guinness."_

_The bartender poured his drink. "Sorry about that guy. I told him not to drink your beer. The one he drank's on the house."_

_Leon shook his head. "Nah. You shouldn't have to pay for that jerk's beer either." He reached into his pocket and handed a ten to the bartender. "Keep the change. It's from Romeo's wallet."_

_The bartender chuckled. "I take it he paid under duress?"_

_"It wasn't __**his **__idea, that's for sure."_

_Claire finished her drink and ordered a winter ale. "I'll have a beer with you, Sweetheart." She kissed him. "I love how sexy you are when you kick ass."_

_He chuckled. "Thanks, Baby." _

_When the bartender served Claire's ale, they clinked glasses and went back to chatting in hushed whispers. About thirty minutes later, it was Claire who had to go take a powder. "Save my seat, Lover. I'll be right back." _

_Almost immediately after she left, a brunette with too much makeup and fake boobs walked over to Leon and caressed her hand across his back. He turned quickly to greet Claire. When he saw it wasn't her, his smile faded. He turned away and nursed his beer. The brunette frowned and sat down in Claire's seat._

_"Hi, handsome."_

_"Ma'am," Leon answered politely. He inadvertently went into 'Agent Kennedy mode'. _

_"You have a nice body."_

_"Mm hm," he answered noncommittally._

_She stuck her chest out a little. "Don't you think I have a nice body?"_

_He shook his head and chuckled, but he didn't answer. He wasn't walking into __**that **__trap. If he said 'yes', the moment Claire came back this woman would be telling his girlfriend. If he looked and said 'no', she'd tell Claire he was checking her out._

_"Well?"_

_"Well, what?"_

_She ran her hand through his hair. "You think I'm sexy?"_

_He gently took her hand and removed it from his person, but she kept grabbing his arm or caressing the side of his neck. He sighed and said. "I think you're pushy. Now, clear off before Claire gets back."_

_She sucked her teeth. "Snooze you lose. You can tell that bitch you're taking __**me **__home tonight."_

_Claire exited the bathroom at that moment. She saw what was going on and frowned. Unlike the man who hit on her earlier and didn't notice Leon right behind him, this girl saw Claire the moment she returned to the room. The woman smirked right at her then made a move to try to force Leon into a kiss, but Leon's reflexes were so quick, he was able to avoid the unwanted lip-lock._

_Claire walked up behind them. The girl started to speak. _

_"Oh, look. Your ex-girlfriend is back. Why don't you tell her how you said we were going back to your place and she could get a cab home?" She figured that if Claire stormed off, Leon would likely just take her home so the night wouldn't be a total loss for getting laid. It had certainly worked for her in the past._

_Claire took a different approach than Leon had when in the same position. She didn't watch to see how far the competition would go to try to steal someone else's date, because Leon didn't ask for her to. She just grabbed the girl by her hair and yanked her backwards off the barstool. The girl hit the floor hard then rolled off the toppled stool. _

_"He lives in Washington, you halfwit whore. But you were right about one thing. I'm not going home with him tonight." She caressed his bicep with her index fingernail. "He's going home with me." Leon chuckled as Claire righted her barstool. She picked her jacket up and put it back onto the seat back of her stool. She sat down by Leon again. "Keeping busy I see."_

_"Trying not to."_

_"Oh, I know." She sighed. "That tramp made me knock my new jacket on the dirty beer-soaked floor." She frowned at the brunette as she went to the end of the bar to sulk. "I should make her clean it off with her tongue, but I have a sneaking suspicion I know where her tongue has been tonight and I don't want the ball sweat of every man but you in this bar on my jacket."_

_The bartender chuckled. "Hey don't include me in that group either. I feel like I got herpes just looking at her."_

_Leon and Claire chuckled. The brunette was not amused._

_"How dare you talk about me like that! I'm a customer!"_

_"No, you're a leech. You haven't bought anything all night. You've just been sitting around waiting for men to buy you drinks, and you keep causing trouble with couples. You're lucky I haven't kicked you out yet."_

_Claire smiled. "Nah, let her stay. If she isn't here, why would anyone need beer goggles?" _

_The band members laughed then started to play the dance hit 'Barbie Girl' by the Danish pop group Aqua. When the lead singer sang the lyrics 'Life in plastic . . . it's fantastic', she pointed at the brunette and then squeezed her own boobs. Leon and the bartender laughed out loud but the girl didn't dare reply to Claire __**or **__the band. Those girls looked tough. Claire raised her beer to the band._

_Leon turned to look at his beautiful girlfriend. He smiled. "You freshened your makeup." She smiled and nodded. He kissed her. "You look even more stunning than before. I didn't think that was possible." She returned the kiss then caressed his hair exactly the way the other woman had. Of course, he made no move to stop her. "You wanna get out of here? These fucking people are pissing me off. I'm getting sick of men staring at how sexy you are, and I'm tired of being civil to phony sluts who can't get their own man but try to go after everybody else's."_

_Claire looked over at the other girl who was standing over at the other end of the bar. Claire made eye contact. "I know what you mean, Baby. I hate sluts."_

_Leon threw forty bucks onto the bar to cover their drinks and a decent tip. He got up, downed the rest of his Guinness, and put his coat on. Claire got up as well, and Leon grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair and held it open for her. She let him help her on with her jacket, then he turned her around and zipped it for her. He kissed her lovingly and then took her hand and led her to the door. _

_Leon's spurned lover started talking shit to Claire as she exited the bar. She walked right up behind the redhead and her tall blond escort. "Yeah, you better go, you little bitch!" The woman was about the same height as the guy who hit on Claire earlier, so she was about three inches taller than Claire, as both women were wearing three-inch heels. Unlike with the two men though, size did not matter. _

_Claire turned around and made a quick threatening move at the girl. She flinched and shrieked a little. Claire chuckled and said, "Two for flinching, ho." Then she punched her in quick succession in the gut and nose. _

_The girl screamed. "I'm calling the cops! She assaulted me!"_

_Leon rolled his eyes. "I work directly under the President of the United States. One phone call, and the charges would be dropped before the black and whites even got here."_

_Leon and Claire left the bar without another word of protest. They got back into the jeep. The man who hit on Leon had keyed the side before taking off. Leon sighed. Claire apologized but her boyfriend just shook his head. "A little paint job is a small price to pay for defending your honor." The couple buckled up and Leon pulled out of his parking space. _

* * *

_While driving Claire home, Leon had difficulty keeping his hands to himself._

_"Open your jacket, Baby," Leon ordered about twenty minutes from the bar._

_She obeyed, since the heater in the jeep had made the interior nice and toasty. He unbuttoned her tiny vest, and then started to laugh. "You're not wearing a bra?"_

_She chuckled. "Nope. The vest has underwire. You didn't know?"_

_"With as perky as your tits are, how could I know?"_

_She giggled again. She squeezed her breasts together and jiggled them a little. "Like the view?"_

_He smirked. "You know I do, Sweetheart."_

_"Well, touch but don't look. Eyes on the road, Agent Kennedy."_

_"Giving me back the torture, huh?"_

_"No, I just don't want the M.E. finding me with my boobs out after you run us off the road."_

_He chuckled. 'M.E. She's been around cops way too much of her life.' Per her request and for their safety, he kept his eyes on his driving and only his right hand on her body._

_She sighed in relief as he teased her nipples. She opened her jeans and lowered them to her knees. He wasted no time pushing the crotch of her panties aside so he could finger her as he drove._

_After about five minutes of attention, she pushed his hand away._

_"Problem?"_

_"Yeah. I don't want to cum on your car seat. That's disgusting. And expensive for you to clean. Bad enough you need a paint job."_

_He chuckled. "Now, who's talking about money?" She laughed. "And speaking of, don't leave your jeans on the floor like that. They're nice. You'll ruin them." _

_"Yes, Mommy."_

_He smirked and shook his head. "By the way, why __**did**__ you buy so many new outfits, not that I'm complaining?"_

_She shrugged. "Just wanted to look pretty for you. All my old clothes aren't very feminine . . . or quality. Sherry keeps reminding me that all your clothes are designer."_

_He shook his head and smirked. "Claire, stop listening to other people. I've been crazy about you for the better part of a decade, and that had nothing to do with what you wear." He laughed. "Uh, except that outfit in Raccoon City. I mean, that outfit, Baby . . . no wonder you were able to seduce me so easily."_

_She laughed. "Aww. You sure know how to sweet-talk a lady."_

_He smiled and righted her panties. "Wanna drive for a while? My ankle's starting to ache."_

_She smiled at him. "Of course, Leon. Just let me get dressed." She closed her vest and pulled up her pants. Once her leather jacket was closed, he pulled over to the side of the road. They switched places. He kissed her on his way to the passenger's seat and she blushed prettily. Claire hopped up into the driver's seat, adjusted the seat and mirrors, and they were off._

_He smiled. "I forgot what an excellent driver you are."_

_"Thank you, Baby." She looked at him briefly, long enough for him to see her smile. "I'll soak your ankle in warm water then wrap it when we get back."_

_"Thanks." He closed his eyes and exhaled._

_She briefly smiled over at him again. "You okay?"_

_He nodded. "Just tired."_

_"Long week?"_

_"Yeah. Stressful, too."_

_"Wanna tell me about it?"_

_He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I don't wanna burden you."_

_She chuckled. "Leon, I'm your girlfriend. You can't burden me by talking to me. If we lived together instead of so far apart, you'd tell me about your day. As it stands now, I have to drag it out of you over the phone."_

_Leon smiled. "Okay." _

_He told her about how he was pressured into going on two search and rescue missions on opposite sides of the globe all by himself in under seventy-two hours. All with a bum ankle. Once he'd finished telling her everything, she was frowning. _

_"Leon . . . Baby, do I need to come to D.C. and kick that Hunnigan bitch's ass?"_

_He started to laugh. "No, Claire. But thanks for the support." She reached across the middle console and caressed his hand. He interlocked their fingers. "Whatever happened this week, it was worth every second if it meant I get to spend so much time with you."_

_She smirked. "You looking to get on my good side, Agent Kennedy?"_

_He smiled with his eyes shut. "Is it working?"_

_She extricated her hand from his and slid her fingers between his legs. _

_"Maybe." She caressed him through his jeans for a minute before opening his fly and pulling out his cock._

_He sighed. "That's nice, Baby."_

_She smiled. "I should hope so."_

_Five minutes of gentle stroking, and he was asking her to pull over._

_"Park over there in the trees."_

_"What's the matter?"_

_He smiled innocently. "Nothing." He closed his pants and got out of the car. He walked around to the driver's side. He opened the door and helped her out. He opened the back door and she slid inside. He got in beside her and closed the door. Once the jeep warmed up again, they both removed their outerwear. Leon took one last look around outside then turned to kiss his Claire._

_She smiled against his lips. 'Oh, please . . . for the love of God . . . it's been two years!' she thought. When his hand made its way onto her breast again, she sighed in relief._

_They made out for a few minutes, just kissing and touching, until Leon pushed her mini-mock vest up off her breasts and took her left nipple into his mouth. He sucked, nipped, and laved her nipple until she was panting with need. When he could feel her racing heart against his lips, he moved to the other breast. She ran her fingers through his hair and kissed his crown. He smiled and dotted kisses between her breasts. She smiled and lifted his head to dot kisses across his face. _

_Once they'd finished kissing for the moment, she removed her cardigan, followed by her boots and jeans. The warmth of the jeep kept her from being cold, even in just her panties. He opened his jeans and lowered them with his underwear to his knees. He wasn't cold either, even half-naked, if his erection was any indication. _

_She leaned toward his lap and stroked his cock. He put his hands on both sides of her head and pulled her up into a deep kiss. She kissed him for a moment, and then removed her head from his grip so she could lower it to his lap. She kissed the tip of his manhood before licking it from tip to root and back again. She took him into her mouth, and Leon leaned back and closed his eyes. She bobbed her head up and down, slowly, not wanting to give him too much stimulation. From time to time, she released him from her mouth to tease the head with kisses and the soft, wet glide of her tongue. _

_He removed his shirt then caressed her back and her hair. Suddenly, he pulled her head up from his lap. "Take your panties off." She moaned and complied, the order alone making her wetter. He took his jeans and underwear the rest of the way off then stretched out across the backseat. She stretched out on top of him, much as they had been after her shower._

_Only this time, they ended the drought._

_"Leon!" she whispered desperately as he stroked himself in preparation of entering her from below. "Please, Baby! I need you so bad!"_

_"I need you, too." He planted his feet on the seat and thrust up into her rapidly. "God, I needed you."_

_She couldn't answer in words anymore. Her lips parted and she panted heavily. He decided that his mouth was wasted on talk anyway, so he used it on her breasts instead._

_Fueled by her moaning, he sped up the movements of his hips. The back seat was very limiting though, so he stopped and withdrew. "Help me put the seats down," he told her. She nodded and did as instructed. When they were done, the seat was more like a bed. He stretched out on his back again and pulled her to straddle his lap, this time facing away from him. He stroked himself a few times and pushed his shaft inside her again._

_"Ohhhh!" she moaned brokenly as he began pounding up into her, hard and fast. He was getting too close to cumming in that position, so he moved them to lie on their side. He continued to thrust into her from behind, this time kissing and caressing her. The contrast of the hot fucking with the tender foreplay was a total turn-on for Claire, and in less than five minutes, she came, gasping his name. _

_Once she caught her breath, she smiled at him over her shoulder. "You didn't orgasm."_

_He shook his head. "Not ready to yet. Once I do, I imagine my balls will be comatose until tomorrow, so we'd better make this one count."_

_She chuckled. "Get dressed and take me home." He nodded and slapped her ass._

_Once they were dressed in their clothes and coats, they got back in the front seat, and Leon drove them back to her place, as his ankle felt a lot better. "Nothing like a little sexual production of endorphins," he told her. She smiled and nodded._

_Once Claire and Leon arrived at her house, he pulled the jeep into her garage. The Harley Davidson and the Shelby were both parked on the street. _

_He cut the engine. _

_Claire turned to Leon. "Could we keep the heat on for a little while?"_

_He nodded. "Not for too long. It drains the battery." _

_She smiled. "Okay." She exited the jeep without her jacket and hit the wall switch to lower the garage door until it was closed about three-quarters of the way. She then stopped it and got back into the passenger's seat and slammed the door._

_"Woo! It's cold as shit outside!"_

_Leon laughed. "I told you that you'd be cold in that getup!"_

_She smirked. "Not that you're complaining or anything."_

_He smiled and shook his head. "Definitely not." He leaned toward her and gently pulled her into a kiss. Their tongues warred for a while. She caressed his face and he caressed her breasts through the mock mini vest on her cardigan. Leon lowered the strip of still buttoned material under her breasts so he could get his mouth on her naked nipples. They looked deep into each other's eyes as he teased her. She smiled and ran her fingertips over his back and shoulders._

_He moved away from her chest, kissed her, and opened her jeans. He slid them, panties and all, down her legs. This time, he worked them off without removing her knee-high stretch boots. Once again, he kissed her, then bent to lick her clit._

_"Oh, God," she whispered._

_She continued to moan for him. The sound was so sexy, he found himself moaning too. He slid his fingers over her slit while he continued to tease her clit with his tongue. Then he leaned up and watched as he pushed his index finger inside her._

_"Ohhh, Baby. You're still so wet."_

_She nodded. "Take your clothes off, Leon."_

_He smiled and complied. She leaned over and took him into her mouth. She could taste her dried essence on his cock. The sensation made her even wetter, until she was dripping a little onto his seat._

_"Sorry about the upholstery." _

_He chuckled. "It's cool. Lower your seat back." She reached down and hit the seat control. She lowered her seat and moved the chair back all the way. He moved her into position so that she was on her knees facing the backseat. He squeezed in behind her and slowly penetrated her. He leaned over her shoulder to kiss her and started to thrust._

_She moaned almost continuously for him. He leaned back as much as his height would allow and watched as he took her. It was so hot to look at. Her back was arched, her hair was tousled, and she held her ass cheeks open so he could see everything._

_He stared at her tiny tighter orifice as it winked with her efforts to keep her cheeks apart. He fantasized a moment about withdrawing from her tight pussy to sink deep into her tighter anus. He was distracted by his fantasy for a couple minutes, until Claire reached under herself and teased her clit. Her pussy tightened around him and he groaned, as she unwittingly pulled him out of his reverie._

_He looked down at her. She looked back at him, her face pleading with him to fuck her harder. He kissed her cheek and doubled the speed and force of his thrusting. Her cries became louder as her pussy tightened even more around his cock. He reached under her and teased her nipples with the very tips of his fingers. She started to tremble, and then stiffened. She clenched him like a vice, and then fluid ran out down his length and down her legs._

_"Ohhhh . . . Claire, you're cumming again. That's so nice, Baby. I love how it feels inside you when you cum."_

_She muttered something incoherent and laid her face on the chair back._

_He chuckled and lifted her into the backseat while following behind her. He pushed the front passenger chair back up and moved the back seat into its flat position again. He laid her on her back and stroked his cock a few times._

_"Ready for some more, Baby?"_

_"Mm hm," she whispered._

_He got on top of her, spread her legs and slowly pushed his length inside her. He began to move his hips, taking care not to stimulate her too much at first on the heels of an orgasm. However, once she was cursing, pulling his hair, and pressing her feet into the ceiling of the jeep, he decided it was safe to fuck her harder._

_"Ohhh, yeah. Oh, fuck, Leon . . . Deeper! Deep like that, Baby. Fuck me! Oh, fuck me deep! Oh, God! Oh, Leon! Leon! Oh! Oh! OH!"_

_He groaned. He bent her legs and placed her calves on his shoulders before leaning down to kiss her and then to lick her right nipple as she held her breast up for him. When he leaned away from her again, she blew his mind when she held her breast to her own mouth and licked her own nipple. He rewarded her with deeper plunging inside her._

_"FUCK! OH, LEON! YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME CUM AGAIN!"_

_"Cum for me, Baby. Let me feel you lose it again."_

_"LEON!"_

_"God, Claire!"_

_"LEON!"_

_"Claire!"_

_"OH, LEON! OH, YES! OH, GOD!"_

_She spilled her juices and he buried himself deep. He shivered as the tip of his cock released a small spurt of semen onto her cervix._

_They both panted and then sighed simultaneously. They chuckled, and then shared a kiss._

_"Ready to go inside?" he asked her._

_She nodded. "Yeah. Although, I'm not so sure how well I can walk on jelly legs."_

_He smirked. "Got it covered, Sweetheart."_

_He killed the engine, got out of the car, and closed the garage door. He put his clothes back on and slipped into his Nikes once he was dressed. He went to the back of the jeep and pulled out their food. He placed the bag on the roof of his car then leaned in to attend to Claire. He righted her cardigan and pulled her panties back on for her. He tossed her jeans into her arms and then pulled her out of the car. She dropped to her knees and opened his fly. She gave him head for about a minute. He pushed her hair back so he could see her face as she took him into her mouth._

_"You like how you taste, Sweetheart?"_

_She smiled around his thickness and mumbled, "Mm hm."_

_He grinned. "So do I. Quit hogging it all." He lifted her up onto his shoulder and spanked her on both ass cheeks. He then kissed the cheek closest to his face and grabbed their food bag. She squealed and then giggled. He smiled as he carried her and their food into the house. "Hold on to those jeans."_

_"Why didn't you just let me put them back on?"_

_"I'm tired of taking them off you with those boots on."_

_"Then take off my boots."_

_"But they're sexy boots."_

_When they entered through the door that linked the kitchen to the garage, she scolded him. "Off with your shoes!"_

_"Fine, your majesty."_

_She giggled. "Was that an Alice in Wonderland pun?"_

_"Pretty much."_

_"Just lose the shoes and take me upstairs."_

_"I'll __**take you **__upstairs, alright."_

_She bust out laughing. He toed out of his shoes and deposited their snack in the refrigerator. He carried her up the stairs and into her bedroom. He placed her on her feet and bent to kiss her, gripping her ass. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sighed. "Carpet," she mumbled against his lips. He grinned into their kiss. He stood up, lifting her off her feet so her boots wouldn't stain her carpet. She wrapped her legs around his waist. _

_They kissed deeply, passion driving their actions, until Claire was panting again. She leaned back and unbuttoned the little vest that hid her breasts from him. He leaned forward and ran his tongue in wet circles around her left nipple. She shivered with each turn of his tongue._

_"Ohhh. I like that so much, Leon."_

_He pushed her cardigan off her shoulders and it dropped to the floor. He dropped her onto the bed and stretched out beside her._

_She smiled at him and caressed his cheek. There was a bit of stubble starting to grow there. She hadn't noticed earlier. "I love when you have stubble."_

_He grinned. "Yeah?"_

_"Yeah. It makes oral sex . . . titillating."_

_"Mm. I love it when you bust out the fifty-cent words, Harvard." _

_She smiled. They both thought of their second time being intimate, in the hotel in Atlantic City. They had been so young to be so broken already. She caressed his left shoulder. He caressed her leg over the scar from Harvardville. They leaned forward and kissed, a loving gesture as opposed to the prior desperate lip-locks they'd shared. _

_Leon's hand glided over her rear and leg as she lay on her side and leaned into his body. She continued to caress and knead his previously wounded shoulder. He leaned down to suck on her nipple as she writhed on the bed. He kissed her stomach, her hip, and rubbed her right cheek before kissing it. He yanked her panties up into her crack and kissed her backside again. _

_She moved to her back and spread her legs. She took his hand and placed it over the crotch of her panties. He rubbed her and smiled when he felt how wet she still was._

_While he amused himself with teasing her clit, she opened his jeans and pulled out his erection. She lowered her head to suck him for a few minutes more._

_When she released him with a sound pop and tapped his tip on her tongue, he moved her to her back again and pulled her panties down and off. He knelt on the floor in front of her and began feathering her clit with his tongue while thrusting into her with two fingers._

_She cried out, but her words were unintelligible. She teased her nipples while he teased her sex. When a gush of fluid leaked out of her, he kissed her slit and stood to remove his clothes. She looked up at him and licked her lips. "It's so big," she whispered. He smirked and knelt to thank her orally for the ego boost._

_After another several seconds of licking her clit, Leon got slowly up onto the bed while Claire scooted back. He got down onto his back, and she got up to her knees and straddled his hips. He stroked his cock a few times and held it up beneath her. She lowered her hips, impaling herself on his length. They both sighed in pleasure. _

_Slowly, she moved her hips up and then even slower back down. She was driving him crazy. He lifted her until he was halfway out of her, and then began to slowly penetrate her over and over. He kneaded her ass with both hands as he took her from below._

_She moaned even louder. Her bed began to creak with the slow, deep deliberate movements of his hips._

_An earth-shattering five minutes later, he pulled out and moved her to the mattress. He pushed her down onto her belly with her legs far apart. She lifted her head, arching her back the way he liked it. He put his cock at her entrance and then pushed his hips forward. _

_"Oh!" she gasped. _

_He moaned and leaned onto his fists on either side of her torso. He took a deep breath and then started to pound her hard. The broken high-pitched, fractionated phrases that drifted from his sweetheart's lips were unable to be understood, but he knew what she was trying to say._

_"It feels good, Baby?"_

_"Soooooo . . . gooooood."_

_"Ohhhhh, Claire." _

_He plowed her into the mattress, loving every clench, every leak of her sex, every smack of their flesh as they were joined as one. As she neared yet another orgasm, he shivered in anticipation. "Gonna cum again, Baby?"_

_"OHHHHH, YES!"_

_He kissed her in the center of her back and turned her over. Then he entered her again in missionary position. He pulled her left leg up onto his chest. He was sweating and tired, but he wanted one more go after this one. _

_He fucked her faster and harder. She screamed his name and threw her head back. He sucked his thumbs, wetting them, and then used them to tease her nipples. _

_Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, and she screamed his name as her climax hit her in wave after wave of pleasure._

_"Oh, God! Oh, Claire! Baby, you feel so good when you cum! Holy shit!"_

_He pulled out when he felt his own release approaching. He moved away from the bed and looked down at Claire as her legs shook and her breathing came in clipped little gasps. Finally she fell limp, and his cock dribbled a little cum. _

_'She's so fucking hot,' he thought. "Baby? You okay?"_

_She nodded. "I'm fine. Just need to sleep for a minute."_

_He smiled. "Go ahead. I need to eat something if I'm gonna keep going. You want anything?"_

_"Lorreli's after sex snacks."_

_He smiled. "Okay. I'll be right back."_

_"I'll be right here."_

_He walked out of her room just as she started to fall asleep. _

* * *

_Rejuvenated by the nap, the food, and the half bottle of white wine they'd shared, Claire was now on her knees in front of her boyfriend, coaxing him back to erection._

_He shivered and pulled his cock from her mouth. "That's enough, Baby. I'm more than ready."_

_He turned her onto her belly with knees still on the floor, her legs pressed together. He bent down behind her, his legs straddling hers. He stroked himself, and entered her deeply. She cried out and fisted the bed sheets._

_He took her from behind roughly this time. But despite his less than gentle treatment, she loved every second of it. She opened her legs and placed her right knee on the bed, spreading herself open more for his pleasure. He moaned and lifted his right leg and planted his foot behind her leg. He braced his hands on the mattress and took her harder, sinking so deep inside her on every thrust, that his shaft was never more than two inches outside of her heat. _

_Claire's moans and screams became continuous. She still seemed tired, so Leon did all the work. After all, he was the one who still needed to cum. He turned her onto her back, but kept her legs off to the side. That twisted position always drove her crazy, making her scream. She didn't disappoint him._

_Whereas Claire was vocal almost constantly now, Leon was nearly silent. Even his labored breathing never got up to much of a volume. He was just enjoying the view of Claire so completely unhinged by her passion. She writhed beneath him, gripped the bed sheets, cursed like a drunken sailor, and kissed him ferociously. Her labia had flushed the same rosy color as her cheeks from the efforts of their lovemaking. Leon knew he couldn't hold back his orgasm again. Not when she was telling him how big he was, how good he felt, how she didn't want him to stop . . . don't stop fucking her pussy, don't stop making her scream . . . just like that she told him . . . take me she begged . . . all while reaching behind him to grab his ass and pull him deeper inside her. He gritted his teeth and pounded her harder. Oh, God . . . God, how he needed to cum._

_He tossed her legs in the air and parted her thighs. He pressed her legs into the mattress in a perfect split. She was right in that phone call when she turned him on in front of Chris . . . she __**was **__flexible. _

_He slammed his cock deep inside her again and picked up the same powerful thrusts and rapid tempo as before he re-positioned her, the rhythmic sound of his balls slapping against her ass on every plunge punctuating her moans._

_"Fuck, yeah!" she panted. "Mm, fuck me! Yeah! Ohhhh, hard! Fuck me harder!"_

_He pulled her closer to the edge of the bed and did just as she asked._

_"Oh, yeah . . . just like that, Leon . . . so good, Baby." Her whispered, breathy moans caused his sacque to tighten. It wouldn't be too much longer before he was done. And from the look on her face, she would likely be right behind him._

_She reached up and gripped his arms, digging her nails into his skin. He knew it hurt. He wished he cared._

_He ground his cock into her sex. She moaned louder. "Don't stop! Ohhhh, Leon, don't stop! Ohhhh!" He grabbed her legs by both ankles and used them for leverage. There was something hot and naughty about the way she looked with him holding her legs apart as he took her so hard. _

_"Claire!" he gritted out, his first utterance since they'd started to fuck again._

_She looked into his eyes, her own glazed over. "Not yet," she whimpered. "Don't cum yet. I want to cum with you, Baby. I'm not close."_

_He pulled out, panting from the effort not to ejaculate, his breath a series of shuttering gusts that barely fed his burning lungs. Once he got himself under control, Claire took his hand and helped him to lie on his back. She got up on her knees and straddled his lap, just as she had before. Only this time, she took control, lowering herself all the way down his cock and grinding her pussy in the sexiest lap dance Leon had ever experienced. After a few minutes of gentle grinding, she started to bounce her hips up and down._

_Once again, he was quiet, as his jaw dropped open and his eyes closed, while she was loud as she screamed with need. He placed his hands on her ass, but made no attempt to guide her movements. As his toes curled into the bed sheets, he knew she didn't need his help to move._

_She moaned and begged him to fuck her, and then ordered him to slap her ass. He did as she ordered, and sighed in ecstasy as she began to slowly grind her hips again. He reached up and grabbed the side of her neck, pulling her down into a deep, tongue-filled kiss. She continued moaning into his mouth._

_"Get back on top of me!" she panted._

_He wrapped his arms around her and turned her over, never pulling out of her to do so. He pulled her legs to his shoulders and kissed both ankles. He pressed his fists into the bed on either side of her head and fucked her harder than ever. She reached behind him and grabbed his ass with both hands, pulling him into her hard on each thrust._

_And then . . . it happened._

_"OH, GOD!" he gritted out. "OH, FUCK . . . CLAIRE! BABY! I'M CUMMING!"_

_"LEON! OHHHHH! FUCK ME WHILE YOU CUM!"_

_"CLAIRE!"_

_"LEON!"_

_"FUUUUCK!"_

_"YEEEES!"_

_He pulled out and flipped her over onto her belly. He pulled her ass up a bit and slapped both pons. He spread open her labia and drove his cock back inside her, over and over, and in less than ten seconds, he was shooting load after load of hot semen over every inch of her vagina. There was so much of it. Two years worth. It had been two years of trying to make his right hand seem like it was a reasonable replacement for Claire, two years without the touch of a woman, his woman, two years without Claire, two years without this feeling, the feeling of cumming inside her, the feeling of being inside her when she came. Unlike with their prior separation, he had been completely faithful . . . and goddamn did his balls ache for it._

_The world went blurry as he unloaded his seed inside her, his hips jerking of their own volition, slamming her bedposts into the wall, grinding her clit into the bed, wringing her screams out of her mouth._

_He froze. She clenched. They cried out one last time in perfect unison. And then they both collapsed, a sweaty heap of limbs and moans. 'Mission accomplished,' was his last coherent thought._

* * *

_By the time Sherry woke them both with breakfast in bed, somehow, in ways they would never remember, they had found the strength to pull the covers over themselves before slipping back into a post-coital coma, wrapped in each other's embrace. _

_Sherry placed their tray on the nightstand, tiptoed out of the room, filled a glass with ice cubes and ice water. Then she snuck back into the master bedroom._

_A man jogging outside stumbled and almost fell at the sound of a man and woman suddenly screaming bloody murder in the house where that hot redhead with the motorcycle lived._

* * *

_Two hours later, Claire and Leon sat at the kitchen table trying to stay awake as Sherry told them how it wasn't fair that she wouldn't have a date for New Year's and didn't want to be their third wheel. The tirade had been going strong for over twenty minutes. They were still exhausted from the night before, and Claire was sore to boot. _

_Leon's head nodded almost to the table and Claire nudged him hard. He shot upright, drawing Sherry's attention. She narrowed her eyes at him._

"_Are you listening to me?"_

_Leon nodded. "Yeah. You want a date for tonight. I assume you mean Kenny."_

_She smirked. He'd actually been listening in the midst of his somnolence. "Sure, he'll do. Turns out he's cooler than I originally thought he'd be," she told Leon. _

_Claire sipped her coffee to hide her smile. She knew this was all a ruse. While Leon had been in the shower, Sherry had excitedly rattled off to Claire how she and Kenny had really hit it off and were dying to go on another date. Still, neither Sherry nor Claire thought that it was a good time yet to tell Leon about the budding romance._

"_He's such a damn hypocrite," Claire had told her. "You know, he and I decided not to tell Chris or his parents about us for the same reasons that you and I aren't telling him about you and Kenny?"_

_Sherry smirked. "Yeah, I know." Sherry paused for a moment. "About that . . . . Mom, when __**are **__you guys gonna tell Uncle Chris about you two?"_

_Claire smirked. "When Chris stops being a tool about the men in my life and Leon stops being a pussy. He swears Chris won't be his 'bro' anymore." She used air quotes when she said 'bro'. The girls had then laughed at the expense of the two most important men in Claire's life._

_Now, several minutes later, just as both women had predicted, Leon was looking at Sherry with skepticism. She hit him with her two best secret weapons . . . the pout and lip quiver. _

_Leon sighed. "Fine. He can come. Call him and tell him to get over here. He'll need a nice suit or a tux. I'll take him to get something appropriate to wear if he doesn't already have it."_

_Sherry's eyes widened. "Uh . . . where are we going?"_

_He smirked. "It's a surprise."_

_Sherry and Claire looked at each other, shrugged and got up to go about their morning._

_Claire did the breakfast dishes. Sherry called Kenny, Leon snatched the phone and spoke to him for a few minutes. Kenny then came over forty minutes later carrying an overnight bag. Leon grabbed him almost immediately to drag him off to Tuxedo Junction, a chain tuxedo store with a location near the mall in Lavale. _

"_He better come back with all his parts intact!" Sherry yelled out the door as the two men walked out to Claire's Shelby._

"_Yeah, yeah," Leon muttered. _

_"Why are you taking my car?" Claire yelled out the upstairs window._

_"For respect. The jeep doesn't scream luxury the way your roadster does." He smirked. "Plus, it's fun."_

_"Don't hurt my baby!"_

_Leon rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Just be dressed and packed by the time we get back."_

"_Packed?" Sherry asked. "Packed for what?"_

"_You'll see. Have your dresses and makeup on by the time we return, and pack nightwear and casual clothes for tomorrow. We're spending the night in a hotel."_

_He used the remote on Claire's keychain to open the doors to her car automatically. Kenny opened the passenger side door and got in. Leon got into the driver's seat of Claire's roadster and took off down the block._

"_Mom, what's he up to?"_

"_Yeah, like __**I **__know?" She sighed. "Leon and his fucking surprises. Well, come on. Let's pack first and then get dressed."_

* * *

_**New York City: a party at a hotel in Times Square**_

"_Baby, you are so drunk."_

_Claire giggled and mushed Leon in the face. "The better to screw me with, my dear."_

_He smiled and shook his head at her slurred response. "Sorry, Little Red Hottie Hood. No can do. You're way too wasted to think rationally. I would never have sex with you if I thought you might be mad at me in the morning." She pouted briefly then abruptly turned to the side and hugged Sherry as she passed by._

"_Oh, my God! Daddy, put a leash on her! She scared the shit outta me!"_

_Kenny smiled and took Sherry's hand before gently pulling her away from her adoptive mother. "Is she gonna be okay, Sir?" _

_Leon smiled warmly at Kenny. "She'll be fine, Kid. Thanks for asking." Over the course of the evening, Leon had started to really take to Kenny. Turned out, he was very likeable. He couldn't even fault him about peeping at Claire. After all, he would have done the same thing. She was hot._

'_Especially tonight,' he thought._

_Claire was wearing a little black cocktail dress with a low draped neckline that showed off her cleavage, and a __**very **__low draped back that left her skin exposed all the way down to her waist, save for two rhinestone-encrusted chains that crisscrossed her back, connecting the two sides of the dress. It was a flowy satin dress that stopped a few inches above her knees, and swirled alluringly when she danced. The earrings and necklace he'd bought her completed the look, and made him curious to know if the naval ring was under the dress. While standing on the roof of their hotel looking up at the ball that would later drop that night, his fingers found the little dangling piercing, as he toyed with it through her dress. _

_The foursome were at a really swank New Year's Eve party in one of the hottest new hotels in Manhattan, The Muse. When Leon had rescued the senator and his family while covering for Carlos, the senator was so grateful, he gave Leon his reservations for the two adjoining suites that were now in Leon's name. The man really just wanted to spend time at home with his family after their ordeal. His wife couldn't agree more, so she asked her husband to pay for the stay for Leon and __**his **__family. The senator arranged for the private jet that was supposed to fly his family from National Airport to meet Leon and company at the Cumberland Airport instead. The pilot then flew them to LaGuardia Airport, and a limo took them to The Muse in Times Square. The Muse was a four diamond boutique hotel. The senator and his wife had taste._

_They checked in at around six and put their bags in their rooms. Claire and Leon took a large corner suite with a king bed and a Jacuzzi tub. Sherry and Kenny took the other room, an even larger suite next door with a king sized bed and a balcony adorned by a table for four. At first, Leon was not happy about the sleeping arrangement, but he quickly got over it when Kenny asked the desk manager to trade them out for a room with two queens instead of one king-sized bed. Leon smiled and shook his head. He told the hotel manager to just leave it be. _

"_Thanks for being so cool about it, Daddy," Sherry said._

_He grinned. She looked so beautiful and grown up in her fuchsia cocktail dress. Her sleeves were long and bell-shaped, and her neckline was a V ending in a little knot at the front of the dress. It was flattering and elegant with just enough cleavage to be feminine without being too revealing. Still, there were enough drunk young men with their eyes down her dress all over the hotel to keep Leon threatening lives for much of the night. And to his surprise, Kenny had been very protective of her too. _

_Kenny also looked dapper in his new tuxedo. Leon had bought it instead of renting so the young man would have one. Kenny was wearing a very contemporary collarless, four-button, cardigan style tuxedo in smoky dark grey with a soft taupe vest and tie, with a matching taupe pocket square. _

_Leon had wanted to indulge in a new tux as well, but he ended up buying a black Perry Ellis two-button dress suit instead because it had the best fit to his muscular frame. All that mattered was that Claire loved the way the suit seemed as if it had been perfectly tailored to fit his body. He completed the look with the cufflinks and tie she got him for Christmas, as well as a Rolex he'd inherited from his grandfather, and a pocket square cut by Tuxedo Junction, and monogrammed to match his tie. The look suited him nicely . . . especially since it had Claire checking him out all night._

_They ate dinner on Leon at Nios, a restaurant and wine bar that Leon had eaten in more than once on prior trips to New York. Adjacent to the hotel itself, they had to navigate a sea of Times Square tourists to get to the front door of the restaurant, even though it was just steps from the front door of the hotel. The restaurant's food was like an upscale take on American comfort food. Claire indulged in a glass of wine with every course, which was why she was now so drunk._

_After dinner, they went to the exclusive party on the rooftop of the hotel. Pop superstars The Black-Eyed Peas rocked out through the night. At midnight, Leon pulled Claire into a kiss. When they parted, Leon glanced over at Kenny and Sherry who were smiling at them. He waved a hand between them. They looked at each other, smiled, and kissed. Claire toasted to them, but Leon snatched the glass before she could drink anymore liquor. _

_Now, Claire was good and drunk, and the party was tapering down. Leon was ready to take Claire back to their room, but their companions wanted to stay out and enjoy the music for a little longer._

_Kenny smiled at Leon. "If you need help getting her up to your room, let me know."_

_Leon smirked. "Nah. The nice thing about dating a hobbit is they're portable."_

"_I heard that, Bitch," Claire slurred._

_Leon ignored her. "You'll see Kenny. Just wait until next month when Polly Pocket over there is old enough to drink." He eyed Sherry playfully. She gave him the finger. Leon chuckled. "Anyway, I'm gonna carry Boozilla up to our room. I think a nice Jacuzzi soak will make her feel better."_

"_Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Sherry said._

"_Can't promise that," Leon said with a wink. He then lifted Claire gently into a bridal carry. "Come on, Baby. Time for bed."_

"_Mm hm," she mumbled, beginning to doze._

_"Good night, you two," he told the younger twenty-somethings._

"_Night, Daddy."_

"_Good night, Mr. Kennedy."_

"_You can call me 'Leon'. And you can call Drunkelina 'Claire'."_

_Sherry snickered. "Drunkelina. That's a good one."_

_Leon smirked. "Breakfast on your balcony in the morning?"_

_Sherry leaned against Kenny and smiled. "Make it brunch?"_

_Leon shrugged. "Whatever you guys wanna do. Just remember, we only have the one day in New York. If you still want to go to those museums you mentioned, we only have until about nine tomorrow night. Flight to Cumberland is at eleven-thirty."_

_She nodded. "Okay, Daddy." She walked over and kissed Claire on the forehead then leaned up to kiss Leon on the cheek. "I love you, Daddy. Thank you for two wonderful holidays."_

"_Love you too, Squirt," Leon replied to Sherry's show of affection. He looked up at Kenny who had gone to the bar to get Sherry another virgin drink. "You know, you were right, Sherry. He __**is **__a great guy. And you're an adult, so I won't give you a hard time about whatever you two decide to do tonight. Just . . . don't do something a girl could regret unless you're sure that you __**won't **__regret it. He deserves better than to think you're not serious about being intimate with him."_

_She smiled. "Okay, Dad."_

_Leon nodded at Kenny and then turned and carried Claire out the door. Sherry dragged her date to the dance floor to listen to the song 'Fergalicious'._

* * *

_Leon and Claire had made it to the room safely. After about an hour of sleep, Claire was feeling a lot less drunk._

"_How are you already sober?"_

"_High metabolism. It's a bitch of a powerful hangover, though." Her voice was hoarse from screaming and partying, but it had a smoky sexy quality that sent shivers up his spine each time she spoke. She drank the seltzer and ate the saltines he'd had room service bring up for her. "These will help. Thank you, Sweetheart."_

"_No worries." He turned off the bath water and removed his towel. "Jacuzzi's ready. You up for this? Sure it won't just make you more nauseous?"_

_She smiled and nodded. "Absolutely. I think we could both use the massage jets after the last few months we've had." She took her towel off, too. _

"_The last few years," he corrected. He lifted her in his arms and kissed her before stepping into the warm water. He sat down and pulled Claire into his lap. She turned to the side and placed one hand on his chest while running the other through his hair. She wet his blond locks and slicked them back off his face._

"_Comfy?" he asked while wetting her hair as well._

"_Yes, very. Am I too heavy on your lap?" He gave her a sarcastic smirk. She smiled and lowered her eyes. He outweighed her by nearly ninety pounds. Of course, she wasn't heavy. "Then, can we turn on the jets?"_

_He kissed her softly. "Of course." He hit the button on the side of the tub, and the water began to churn. He put his arms around her and closed his eyes. They just sat in each other's arms for a few minutes before either of them spoke._

"_Mmmmm . . . ." she whispered. "That's nice."_

"_Yeah. The jets are really doing the trick for my ankle."_

"_Yeah . . . the jets are nice, too."_

_He opened his eyes and stared at her in confusion. "I thought we were talking about the same thing. What did you mean?"_

_She smiled at him. "What do you think?"_

_He looked down and chuckled. He'd been absently rubbing her back since he'd turned on the Jacuzzi._

"_Want a little stimulation?" _

_She nodded and kissed him. "If you wouldn't mind."_

_He pulled her around to straddle his waist. They kissed and caressed each other for several minutes. Claire was still a little sore from the prior night's activities, but the Jacuzzi jets soon made her feel better._

_After a nice orgasm, she rested her head against his shoulder and sighed._

"_I'm gonna miss you so much when you leave, Stretch."_

_He looked down at her. He didn't know what to say. It was like he was already gone in her eyes. He suddenly became very aware of how little time they had left. And what about once he __**did **__leave? Would it be another two years before they saw each other again? Or perhaps longer? Three years? Five or more again, like before Harvardville? Or would he die on a mission, never to see her again at all? He didn't even want to think about being the one to survive __**her**__._

"_Claire . . . ."_

_She shook her head. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to ruin the moment."_

_He kissed her forehead, held her tightly, and said the only thing he really could. "I'm gonna miss you, too."_

_She smiled against his shoulder then closed her eyes. "Take me to bed, Agent Kennedy."_

_He smiled and nodded. "In a minute." He turned her around and kissed her throat. She smiled and coaxed his hands up onto her breasts. He caressed her then placed a hand at her womanhood. "You feeling okay down there?"_

"_Yeah." She smile into the kiss that followed. "You looked so sexy tonight . . . very debonair."_

_He grinned. "I can't begin to tell you how many men almost caught a beat-down for staring at you in that dress. Although I probably missed a few. I was staring at you, too. That dress was just way too sexy. It's like it was __**ordering **__me to make love to you tonight." _

_She giggled. "Down, Tiger. Just let me go to the bathroom first."_

_He got up out of the tub, lifting her in his arms as he stood. "Whatever you need, Baby."_

_She smiled as he placed her on her feet, and then handed her a towel before grabbing his own. They dried off then he led her to the bedroom of their suite. "Thanks. I definitely drank too much tonight. I'll be right back." _

_He smirked. "I'll be right here." _

_When she came back from relieving herself and cleaning herself one more time, he knelt at her feet. He kissed her belly, licked her naval ring, and sucked her nipples in turn. He pushed her down on the bed and lifted her legs back towards her head. He caressed her sex and then delved his tongue inside her. _

_She let him pleasure her for a minute and then scooted back on the mattress to the head of the bed. He smiled and followed her._

* * *

_After about a half hour of hardcore sex, they lay in each other's arms under the blankets. They slowly caressed each other's hands where they rested on Leon's chest beside Claire's head. All of a sudden, Leon started to chuckle._

"_What's funny?" Claire mumbled before sighing blissfully._

"_Listen carefully," he replied. _

_Claire did as instructed, and then started to laugh as well when she heard through the wall the sounds of two people loudly snoring in stereo in the suite next to theirs. "Dear God!"_

"_Those two were made for each other," Leon said with another chuckle._

"_I know, right? They sound like a couple of drunks with a sinus infection."_

"_You should talk."_

_She laughed. "Shut up, Jerk! I'm not drunk anymore!"_

_He smiled. "No, you aren't. Now go to sleep. The kids want to go to a bunch of museums before we leave New York. We'll need our rest if we're gonna make even half of them."_

_She smiled. "Yeah? Like which museums?"_

"_Um . . . MOMA, the Met, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Plus they want to stop by Ground Zero."_

_Claire lifted her head and stared at Leon incredulously. "In one day?"_

_He shrugged. "I know. They're being over-ambitious. They'll find out the hard way. I doubt we'll even make it out of MOMA."_

_She smirked. "Too true." _

"_I'll just have to make time to bring the four of us back when I earn some more vacation time." He looked down at Claire apologetically. "And this time, I swear I'll keep that promise."_

_She kissed him tenderly then kissed her way back down to his chest where she laid her head again. "I will always trust your word from now on. This holiday . . . Leon you went above and beyond your promise. Thank you so much." _

_He smiled into her eyes. "You're welcome." He sighed. God, he wanted so much to tell her he loved her. "Seeing you so happy has made this the best winter holiday season in all my life."_

_She snuggled more securely into his arms. "Night, Leon."_

_He stroked her hair. "Night, Claire. Happy New Year."_

_She smiled as she closed her eyes, his gentle caress lulling her to sleep. "Yes," she whispered. "Very happy."_

* * *

"_So, you kissed a little, fooled around a bit, but you didn't have sex."_

"_Right."_

_Claire smiled. "Your dad will be pleased."_

_Sherry shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Like I'd even tell him __**that **__much."_

_Claire chuckled. "Good point."_

_Claire and Sherry were stretched out on the bed in Sherry's suite, drinking earl grey tea and chatting about the night before. Claire had only asked Sherry if she and Kenny had a good time, and Sherry had unloaded a boatload of T.M.I. on her mom. Now with a faraway look and a furrow of her brow, Sherry stirred her tea and then took a small sip._

"_Mom . . . why do you think Daddy wanted to take Kenny out alone?"_

_Claire shrugged. "Can't be sure. I think he wanted to have a man-to-man."_

_Sherry frowned. "Is he gonna do the same with Uncle Chris about you?"_

_Claire smirked. "Touché."_

_Sherry sighed. "Whatever. He just better not do anything to my Kenny."_

_"'__**My**__ Kenny', is it now?" Sherry blushed and smiled. "Well, contrary to what Leon thinks, I forgive your new boyfriend for what he did."_

_Sherry smiled. "Daddy told me last night that he liked Kenny."_

_Claire's brows went up. "Did he really?" Sherry nodded. Claire smiled. "For the record, I like Kenny, too. He's a sweetheart, and he's matured quite a bit since he went away to college." She sipped her tea and chuckled. "Leon actually gave him the benefit of the doubt. Somebody call the newspapers." Sherry giggled. "Well, I guess if he likes him, he's probably not gonna hurt him __**too**__ bad. After all, it's not like he took your virginity last night or anything."_

_Sherry paled. "Uh . . . about that. I'm not a virgin."_

_Claire frowned in confusion. "I thought you said you didn't have sex last night."_

"_I didn't. I wasn't a virgin when Dad and Uncle Chris rescued me."_

_Claire's expression contorted in pain . "It . . . It wasn't rape . . . was it, Baby?"_

_Sherry smiled and shook her head 'no'. "It was consensual. I was never raped. Although it certainly crossed some guards' minds once I filled out. But they were all afraid of Wesker. He never wanted me touched in that way." She lowered her head. "He . . . He used to be my father's friend, you see. William Burkin, not Leon, I mean."_

_Claire nodded, her relief was almost palpable. "I knew what you meant."_

_Sherry sighed and rolled onto her back. "I guess . . . I don't know why he was like that, but he never harmed me."_

"_Sherry . . . on the day you were captured Leon and I discovered you were missing when we came to visit you. Your . . . Your blood was found at the scene. On your bed."_

_Sherry's eyes widened and then she started giggling hysterically. "You thought someone hurt me?" Claire nodded. "I got my first period the night before. No, I was in bed because I was having bad cramps, when a man came and put a cloth over my mouth. I think it was Wesker. He didn't hurt me though. I bled heavy that first time. It was just menstrual blood."_

_Claire sighed, and smiled at her daughter. "You have no idea how much that upset me and your dad." _

"_I can imagine." Sherry lowered her eyes. "Uncle Chris said you two didn't speak for a lot of years after that. He didn't know why. Am I the reason?"_

"_Sherry . . . ."_

"_Please, Mom. Just answer the question."_

_Claire tilted her head back and sighed. "Maybe partly . . . or more than partly, but there were other factors involved besides you."_

"_Like Steve?"_

"_Partially."_

"_Mom, did you love him?"_

"_Steve?" Sherry nodded. "No." Sherry looked relieved. Claire quirked a red brow and smirked. "Why? Afraid how I felt about Steve would affect how I feel about Leon?" _

_Sherry blushed in embarrassment and nodded her head. _"_Maybe partially."_

_Claire smiled. "Well, you don't need to worry about that. Leon's the only man I've ever loved. But when Steve died, he told me he loved me, too. I don't think he really meant it, but it took a long time for me to get over that. I felt so guilty. I hadn't been able to save him __**and **__I didn't return his affection. See, I was already pretty smitten with your dad by then. Poor Steve. I let him down in so many ways." Claire stared off into the distance, woolgathering for a while. Finally, she just shook off the painful memories and smiled at Sherry. "That's it. That's quite enough about __**my **__fractured love life. What about you? Who was this mystery man that made such an impression on you in the Umbrella facilities. Some strapping eighteen year old guard?" Sherry just giggled and shook her head. "An adorable little nerdy lab tech?" _

_Sherry scrunched up her nose and said, "No. The youngest scientist I ever met was thirty-something and fat."_

"_Another prisoner?" Her daughter nodded with a sad little smile. Claire smiled. "You look like you really like him."_

_Sherry welled up as she nodded. "I loved him."_

"_Loved? Past tense?"_

"_Yeah. Wesker found out and . . . well . . . ." Her tears spilled over._

_Claire's face fell again. She was gonna suggest having Leon go rescue the young man, but it was already too late for him. "We don't have to talk about it, Baby."_

_Sherry smiled at her surrogate mother. "If I can't talk about this with my Mom, then who? Besides, it's time I got this off my chest."_

_Claire ran a loving, maternal hand over Sherry's head. Sherry sobbed a couple times, and then rested her head on Claire's shoulder. Claire held her as she cried. _

"_Sherry . . . Sweetie, you seem like this is awfully painful still. Are you sure you should be entering into another relationship right now?"_

_Sherry nodded. "He died a year ago. I think I've mourned long enough. Kenny knows about him. I also told him about Umbrella."_

_Claire's eyes widened in shock. "Sherry!"_

"_Mom, I know. It's just . . . I'm not a normal person. I'm still infected. I don't know what kind of offspring I may one day have if Rebecca and her people can't come up with a cure. I didn't want to lie to him. Plus, I've been locked away so long, I'm really behind on pop culture references. Kenny's not stupid. He knew something was up. And being on Umbrella's hit list, he deserved to know that being involved with me could be dangerous for him, too."_

_Claire exhaled through her nose. "Sweetheart. Umbrella thinks you died in that explosion in Austria. They're not looking for you. Plus, you're not registered at Loyola under your real name. You don't need to run anymore. Your father truly did free you."_

_Sherry smiled. She thought of her late lover. "That would have made him happy. It's all he ever wanted for me."_

_Claire smiled. "Tell me about him."_

_Sherry closed her eyes, let her thoughts fill with the only man she'd ever loved, and told Claire all about him._

* * *

"_How about this one, Sherry?"_

_Claire held out a sweatshirt. Sherry grabbed it and nodded. "That one's nice. I'll take it. Thanks, Mom." Claire put it in the basket on her arm. Leon walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder. She turned and smiled up at him. _

_"You girls almost done?"_

_Claire grinned. "Getting bored, Baby?"_

"_Nah. But I'm getting tired of being eyeballed and giggled at by the MTV2 generation. I might as well be back in D.C. being ogled by Ashley and her friends."_

_Claire chuckled and caressed his cheek. "Aww. Should I be jealous?"_

_He smirked and wrapped his arms around her. "Not a chance, you sexy MILF, you." They kissed gently at first, and then deepened their lip-lock._

_Sherry rolled her eyes. "Rein it in, Mom and Dad."_

_Sherry's new roommate, Phoebe, had come shopping with them for the Spring semester. "God, Sherry. Your parents are hot."_

_Sherry giggled. "They're attractive alright."_

"_They look so young, too."_

_Sherry smiled. "I'm adopted. They were pretty young when they took me in, and I was already pre-pubescent."_

_Phoebe smiled sadly. "Did you know your real parents?"_

_Sherry nodded and smiled. "Yeah. They raised me from when I was a baby to when I was twelve. They died. Then Leon and Claire adopted me. In fact, here. Let me show you what they looked like." She pulled her locket out of her t-shirt. She opened it and showed Annette's and William's pictures to her new friend._

"_Wow. You really look like them."_

_Sherry smiled and shrugged. "Yeah. I guess." She gently closed the locket and placed it back inside her blouse, both to respect her biological parents and as not to jar the homing device that Leon had told her was hidden inside when he returned the locket after rescuing her. He had told her that he promised to never lose her again._

_Sherry suddenly hugged Leon as he walked past her._

_He smiled. "What's this all about?"_

"_Just . . . thank you, Daddy. Thank you for bringing me home. Thank you for helping me get into college. Thank you for giving me my life back." She pulled him down to her level and whispered in his ear, "I'm so sorry for arguing with you so much in quarantine. I didn't mean any of the terrible things I said. You're my hero, Daddy. I love you so much."_

_He caressed her hair. "All I've ever wanted was for you to live a normal life, to be safe and happy. I love you, too, Angel."_

_Claire smiled at Leon. "Who's the favorite parent again?"_

_He chuckled. "She's still wearing your vest."_

_Phoebe's eyes widened. "Mrs. Kennedy, is that really your 'MADE IN HEAVEN' vest? I love Queen."_

_Claire chuckled. 'Mrs. Kennedy,' she thought. 'He wishes.' She smiled innocently at Sherry's new roommate. "Yes, Phoebe. Until I gave it to Sherry, it was mine."_

"_That's awesome!" _

"_Thanks. And I love Queen, too. I had bought the vest to match this bike I had at the time. Pink and black Harley Davidson in cherry condition."_

"_Oh yeah? What happened to it?"_

_Claire smirked. "It blew up."_

_Phoebe's eyes widened. "Wow. That must have been some wreck."_

_Claire chuckled. "Something like that. It blew up with Leon's jeep."_

_Phoebe smiled. "Aww. Is that how you two met, in an accident?"_

_Leon and Claire looked at each other and smiled sadly. _

"_Something like that," they answered in unison._

* * *

_Claire and Leon stood at the entrance to Sherry and Phoebe's dorm room. Phoebe was on the phone with her boyfriend setting up a double date with Sherry and Kenny. Both parents did a quick visual inventory to insure that they'd gotten her everything she needed from Target. Leon and Claire had split the cost at Target, but Claire insisted on buying everything in the campus bookstore. _

_In addition, each parent had also hidden a gun for Sherry in the dorm room._

_After their perusal was complete, Claire hugged Sherry tightly, fighting back tears as she released her._

_Leon pulled their daughter into a bear hug and lifted her off her feet. Once he set her down again, she ushered them quickly out the door. _

"_Is there a reason you're in such a rush to be rid of us?" Claire asked._

_Sherry nodded. "Yeah, actually. You two have been dancing around each other all day, and frankly, I'm sick of it." She smirked and said. "If you two don't get back home and boink each other, I'm gonna smack you both." _

_Phoebe, who had been drinking a Sprite, spat the soda all over her desk. "Jesus!" she shouted._

_Sherry's parents, on the other hand, were only slightly shocked by what she said. She giggled and said, "Don't look at me like that!" They both continued to do it anyway. "Uh . . . Hello? I'm not that shy, frightened little twelve year old from when we met, so stop giving me that look. I'm an adult. I'm almost old enough to drink you know, and . . . ." She looked left, looked right, and then beckoned them closer with a wave of her hand. Once they had leaned in close, she leaned toward them and whispered, "I'm not even a virgin anymore." Claire chuckled and Leon pulled a face. Sherry laughed and shut her door in their faces._

* * *

At this point, Chris was laughing his head off, because Leon was making the same face in the present that he was sure his friend had been making in the past while standing outside Sherry's dorm room door.

Leon glared at him.

Chris said, "Welcome to my world, Rookie. That's the same face I made when I first suspected you were poking my little sister."

Leon imagined some guy fucking Sherry the way Leon had been fucking Claire. He shivered and downed an entire beer. He'd always just told himself that Kenny made love to Sherry very gently. He and Claire were not always gentle.

"Did you really call Claire a MILF in a crowded college bookstore?" Leon nodded. Chris laughed his head off. "Classic!" Once he got the laughter out of his system, he asked, "So what happened with Kenny when you found out he fucked Sherry?"

Leon remembered what had happened later that day. On the way back to Claire's, his girlfriend had called Sherry's cell and told her to reassure her dad that he shouldn't go to UMBC to murder Kenny.

Leon in the present told Chris he'd mellowed considerably about Kenny having sex with Sherry.

"I thought you told her she could have sex with him in New York as long as she really wanted to do it and had no regrets."

"I know I did. And believe me, your sister made me feel like a real jerk all the way back to her house for going back on what I said. But it's one thing thinking I'd be okay with her having sex in theory, but being faced with the reality is so much different."

Chris chuckled. "Tell me about it."

"I know. Despite all the punching, you've been really cool about everything I told you today. And Kenny is still with Sherry to this day."

"So my niece tells me."

Leon smiled. "He treats her right, and they both assure me that they always use protection when they make love, so I can't complain."

Chris smiled and took a small swig of his own beer. He changed the subject. He wanted to get back to his own overbearing protectiveness, not dwell on Leon's. "So, you and Claire bumped uglies for like four days straight? And then the last time was right after you got her back to her place?"

It was Leon's turn to smirk. He shook his head no.

Chris looked confused. "I thought you said you two did it one more time after you dropped Sherry off. If you had to go back to work in D.C. the next morning, then that would have had to have been the last time you two did the horizontal mambo."

Leon smiled brightly and said, "That it was. But we couldn't do anything when we _first_ got back to Claire's house. You see, we weren't alone. But don't worry, Buddy. We got around to it."

And then, it was Christopher's turn to pull a face as he remembered where he spent the early part of January the year after Jill had supposedly died.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Woo, that was a long one! Ha! That's what she said! LOL! Sorry. Didn't mean to subject you all to my immature ramblings. Anyway, you guys are awesome for sticking it out this far! We're almost to the end! Hang in there with me. And again, thanks for indulging my rather odd sense of humor. Especially with the doorbell and my use of a line from an RE movie. As much as I don't like how little the movies kept to the games, I do love Mike Epps. Did you spot his line from RE: Apocalypse? Hey, if Burnside couldn't get the gold guns in that movie, who better to pimp it out with them than crazy-ass L.J.? I ask you! Even if they _were _actually gold Desert Eagles instead of lugers in the movie, they still looked pretty cool. ("My shit is custom!" - L.J.)

See you in Chapter 7. After that it's just the epilogue. Truly, thank you so much for reading. It's been fun doing a really lemony fic for Leon and Claire, and I'm sorry it took so long for me to update. I'm glad some of you enjoyed it, for both the boom-chica-wow-wow (cue shitty 1970s porn music) and the humor. For those who didn't like it, I appreciate any constructive criticism you may have had.


	8. Chapter 7: New Year's Resolutions

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

**Author's Notes: **We have reached the second half of the last of the five lemony fresh romantic encounters from Claire and Leon's past. If you haven't already guessed the fifth scenario I've yet to see in prior lemon fics is Leon reunites Claire and Sherry, and Claire shows him her . . . gratitude. Well, there's still a bit more gratitude to come, and we're also nearing the end of Chris and Leon's man-to-man.

Enjoy . . . again! After this, it's just the epilogue!

~ Tani

* * *

**CHAPTER 7: New Year's Resolutions**

_**Cumberland, Maryland: a quaint suburban household on the East Side**_

_Claire and Leon arrived back to Cumberland in record time. And Sherry was absolutely right. They __**really **__needed to boink each other. More than once, they considered pulling over to the side of the road and taking care of it like on the night Leon first arrived to Cumberland, but there were a lot of state police cars out. Besides, it was still daytime._

_Once they arrived at Claire's, she kissed him and whispered, "Last one to my bedroom gives the other one head."_

_He smirked. "You're on, Shorty." He was determined to beat her. After all, he had her beat on height by almost a foot. But he knew not to underestimate her. Claire tended to play dirty. _

_They ran into the house, stopping to take their shoes off in the doorway. Claire was slowed up by the fact that her bootlegs went all the way up her calves. Leon was slowed by his shoe laces. In the end, they both made it to her bedroom door at the same time._

_They went inside and slammed the door. _

_She leaned into his arms and sighed. "Alone at last."_

_He smiled as he leaned down to kiss her throat. "Mm hm."_

_She moaned. "Just you . . . and me . . . ."_

"_CLAIRE? IS THAT YOU?"_

"_. . . . and Chris?" _

_Leon leaned away from her. "What the hell?"_

"_I don't know."_

"_What's he doing here?"_

"_I don't know!" She sighed and closed her eyes. "Shit. Sorry, Leon. He must have just popped in and used his key."_

_He sighed. "No worries. Rain check, then?"_

_She shrugged in defeat. "I guess it'll have to be." She opened her eyes and looked up at him morosely. "So . . . you're leaving, then I take it?"_

_He smiled sadly. He hated disappointing her. "I'll have to leave tonight, but I can hang out for a little while."_

_She shook her head and avoided his gaze. "No, I don't want you to go too late. There'll be traffic. If you need to go now, you can."_

_He stole one last kiss before they left the room. "Claire, if we had sex right now, it would have taken me at least a few hours to leave. Don't be like that, Baby. You know I don't actually __**want **__to leave you."_

_She sighed. "Yeah. I know." She leaned up and kissed him. "I'm sorry."_

"_Don't be sorry. I'm gonna miss you, too." He tilted his head toward the door. "Shall we?"_

_She groaned and sucked her teeth. "I guess."_

_They walked out of the room and down the stairs. Chris was coming out of the guest room where Sherry had stayed for the past week. He wore an Air Force Academy sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. His left arm was secured in a sling._

"_There you are! Oh, hey Leon! How's it going?"_

"_Going good. Sorry we didn't say 'hello' when we came in. Didn't realize you were here."_

"_Yeah. I parked my truck around the corner. There was no space anywhere else. I was wondering why the Shelby and the Harley were on the street. My truck can't get up her narrow driveway, so if I can't park in front of her house I have to park elsewhere."_

"_Is it that ridiculous hummer from Austria?"_

_Chris chuckled. "No. But it is a hummer. Silver with black leather interior."_

_Leon smiled. "Nice."_

"_You still driving the Mazerati?"_

"_Yup. Brought the jeep this time, though."_

_Claire rolled her eyes. "If you two wanna be alone together, just let me know."_

_Chris grinned and walked over to pick her up with the arm that wasn't in a sling, and then swing her around. "Hi, Sis! Merry Belated Christmas! Happy Belated New Year!" Leon shook his head and meandered into the kitchen to get something to drink for all of them._

"_PUT ME DOWN, YOU OAF!" Claire screamed at her brother._

_He laughed out loud. "Is this the thanks I get for keeping my promise?"_

"_What promise?"_

"_What promise? Claire, you threatened me bodily harm if I didn't get here before Groundhog's Day!"_

"_SHE THREATENED YOU GENITAL HARM!" Leon yelled from the kitchen._

_Chris chuckled. "There, you see? I have a witness."_

_She smiled. "Aww. You came to visit me like you promised. Thanks, Chris." She cocked her head. "You sober?"_

_He lowered his eyes and scratched the back of his head. "Last night, not so much. But I am now."_

_She sighed. "Well . . . I guess I'll take what I can get."_

_He nodded. "Thanks for understanding."_

_She smiled. "Thanks for being honest." She leaned into a hug. He wrapped his good arm tightly around her and rocked her back and forth._

_Leon walked back into the living room with three large mugs of hot coffee. He smirked when he saw the siblings' embrace, and then sighed loudly. "It's a Kodak moment."_

_The Redfields chuckled and pulled back from each other. Chris took a mug for Claire and then one himself once his good hand was free. The three of them sat down on the couch, with Claire sitting between them. Chris sipped his coffee and then looked around the room, which was still decorated for Christmas. _

_He smirked. "I can't understand why you like those fake trees so much."_

"_Wait until you get nice carpets and trample pine needles in them and have to replace them all . . . then we'll see if __**you **__still like real trees."_

"_I would have thought you'd want to get a real tree for Sherry at least."_

_Claire rolled her eyes. "I didn't know Sherry was coming before I decorated, Genius."_

_Chris chuckled. At this point, he was really just trying to annoy her rather than to make a valid point. "Where __**is **__my niece?"_

"_Baltimore," Leon answered before sipping his coffee. "Loyola University."_

_Chris smiled at Leon. "So the President helped you out, after all?"_

"_Yup."_

"_Awesome. And she's at school fairly close to both of you. That must be a relief. And she has the homing device?" Claire and Leon both nodded. Chris smiled. "Too bad I missed her. I was hoping to see the little squirt. She called me a couple nights ago to say she was in town at a party with some boy. Said she just wanted me to know she was there in case she needed anything. She didn't call again until morning to tell me she had a nice time and was heading back to Cumberland. I was at work so I couldn't leave to see her without it being an emergency." _

_Claire's eyes widened. "Wait, the President helped you do what, Leon?"_

_He shrugged. "Rescue Sherry, get her into college, get me vacation time to spend the holidays with the two of you. Take your pick."_

_Claire smiled. "Then I guess I'm glad I voted for him a second time." Leon chuckled. "Say, how __**did **__you guys rescue Sherry?"_

"_Long story," they answered in unison._

"_Am I going somewhere?" she asked with a quirk of her brow as she settled her head on Leon's shoulder in an attempt to make Chris uncomfortable._

_Leon turned to Chris, who shrugged and said, "It was your idea. Why don't you start." Leon shook his head as he started absently stroking Claire's hair in a very deliberate way while talking directly to Chris._

"_Yeah but it was your plan," Leon replied. _

_Chris pushed Leon's arm off Claire and pulled her away from her 'partner', and forcefully pushed her head onto his own shoulder. "No, really. I insist, Leon."_

"_Well, I'll start, and then you can pick it up later," Leon said with a chuckle as he picked up Claire's feet from the floor. He massaged them for a moment, and then chuckled when Claire made a blissful sound and slapped Chris on the chest to make him release her. She then moved her head right back over to Leon's shoulder. She wrapped his arm around herself, and began running her fingertips up and down the other arm. Chris rolled his eyes, and Leon chuckled before beginning his half of their story._

"_I got a call from Barry about a month ago. He had been assigned to monitor for Umbrella activity in eastern Europe. He got some intel on an Umbrella facility posing as a farm in western Austria, just over the German border. He looked into it and discovered that Sherry was being held there. He never mentioned Steve."_

"_So you went to get her? And Chris went with you?"_

_Leon smiled. "Oh, it was more complicated than that. I needed the backing of the President to even go in there. I needed weapons, a team, exit strategies. It needed to be a legitimate mission or I'd likely just get captured going it alone."_

"_And President Graham decided to help you out? That's great."_

_Leon chuckled humorlessly. "Not as great as you think. He said 'no' at first. I argued with him for over half an hour. Do you know how precious a half-hour of the President's time is?" He shook his head. "Didn't think of it like that on that day, but I guess the amount of time he spent, even just arguing with me, is a testimony to how much he cares about what's important in my life." He sighed. "In any case, we were getting nowhere, and he was starting to check his watch. I decided that he was building up to telling me he had a meeting or something to go to, and if I let him leave without giving me a firm 'yes', I'd never get one. So, I played the guilt card, and a double-dose of it at that."_

"_What did you say?" Claire asked with wide eyes._

"_I told him that when he wanted me to save __**his **__daughter, __**I **__didn't say 'no'."_

"_Ooo, snap!" Chris muttered before chuckling against the lip of his coffee mug._

_Leon smiled. "Then I told him that my daughter was no less important than his, and that I was going after her, with or without his help. I said the intelligence from Barry Burton stated that a one-man rescue mission was nearly impossible, and that a team would be needed. I said, so I guess this is good-bye for good. I knew that the chance of bringing Sherry home without being captured myself was less than one percent, but my baby was worth the risk."_

"_And his response?" Claire asked._

"_He begged me not to go. I told him I had to. He asked me why. Why would I go on a suicide mission for a hopeless cause? I told him that's the same thing they said about the mission to rescue Ashley, but he certainly didn't go with the odds when he sent me to my death then. If I remember correctly, I think he actually cringed. I told him that if I would go through all that to save a girl who I didn't even know, then why the hell would I not do the same for my own child? I tried to leave again, and he said he wouldn't let me do this. I told him he couldn't stop me. He threatened to fire me. I told him that if I made it out of this alive, I'd be happy to be around to stand on the unemployment line. I told him that it had been an honor serving under him and I gave him my dogtags. I asked that they be sent with my flag to my parents once Umbrella captured me so they could give me a proper military burial if any parts of my body were ever recovered. I saluted and I walked toward the door of the Oval Office. That's when he caved. He said I could have a team of my choosing and whatever equipment I needed. Just as long as the facility was destroyed once my objective was accomplished."_

_Chris laughed his head off. "You sure know how to make someone feel like shit, Rookie!"_

_Leon smirked. "It's a gift."_

_Claire rolled her eyes. "Yeah. He's a little __**too **__gifted with it."_

_Leon glanced down at her and asked her, "When did I make __**you **__feel guilty?"_

"_Too numerous to count."_

_He chuckled. "Well, if I did that to you, I'm sorry."_

_Claire quirked her brow. "No, you're not."_

_Leon laughed out loud. "No, I'm not." Chris laughed along with him. _

"_Jerks," Claire said with a giggle. "Alright, finish the story."_

_Chris picked it up from there, starting with how Leon had come to see him at Terry's Pub._

* * *

"_You really have to leave, Bro?"_

_Leon nodded. "Yeah. Vay-cay's over. Gotta go to work in the morning. Believe me, I'd much rather just hang out here with the two of you." He looked at Claire pointedly, and she smiled into her coffee mug. "See you around, Chris. Thanks for my Fucking sign." Chris laughed loudly. The infamous sign had been stowed away in Chris's hummer for the next time he ran into Leon. Now, it was in the back of Leon's jeep. Leon smirked and said, "Hey, Claire. Be a gentleman and come walk me to my car."_

"_Hey, Leon. Be a whore and come blow me."_

_Chris laughed again and went into the guest bedroom to change for the night._

_Once they were sure Chris wasn't watching, Claire took Leon's hand in hers and intertwined their fingers. They walked to the door. She swiped at her eyes. "I promised myself I wouldn't do this until you were gone and Chris was in bed."_

_He smiled down at her. "It's okay, Baby. I don't like making you cry, but I don't want you to hide your tears from me if you're upset, either." He wiped her eyes with his thumbs. She smiled into his eyes and then grinned with delight as she noticed something over his shoulder. _

"_Look, Sweetheart. We're under the mistletoe."_

_He looked up at the ceiling, and smiled. He turned back toward her and said, "Well, at least if Chris catches us, we have an explanation for mauling each other." He leaned down and kissed her forcefully. Chris never did come out to see it, but not for lack of Leon taking his time with the kiss._

_When Claire's lips were swollen and Leon was having trouble catching his breath, they pulled apart. Claire hugged him tightly._

"_I'll miss you so much," she whispered. "This holiday season has been wonderful because of you. We haven't been together this much since we escaped from Raccoon City. It's gonna be so hard not seeing you for so long."_

_He nodded and led her outside to his jeep. "I know. I promise to call everyday and I'll get back to see you as soon as I can."_

_She smiled. "Try not to make it two years again . . . but I'll understand if you do."_

_He pressed his lips to hers. "Believe me," he muttered into their kiss. "It was never __**my **__idea to be apart for so long. And by the way, I expect you to come visit __**me **__at some point, too." He caressed her breasts through her sweater. "My bed's still dying to meet you." _

_She smiled and caressed his cock through his jeans. "The feeling is mutual," she replied in a sultry whisper._

_He smirked and looked from side to side. When he found the street empty, he pushed her sweater and bra up. She shivered and moaned as the cold air hit her naked breasts. Her nipples hardened instantly. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the sensation. Suddenly, she felt his warm fingertips glide across her chest. Her whole body shook and she gripped his arms. When he bent and suckled each cold hard nubbin into his coffee-warmed mouth, he had to hold her up so she didn't collapse to the ground. He smiled a smug little smirk, as he stood up straight and righted her clothes. _

_She opened her eyes then narrowed them at him. "How would you like it if I gave __**you **__half a blowjob then drove away? Tool."_

_He chuckled. "Yeah . . . I'll miss you, too, Baby." She rolled her eyes and smiled. She leaned into his arms. He held her close and stroked her hair. He kissed her crown and closed his eyes, engulfing himself in her natural scent as well as that new perfume. He smiled. "You __**do **__smell nice."_

"_Huh?"_

"_Your phone call, remember?"_

"_What phone call?"_

_He chuckled. "Never mind." He kissed her cheek and then her lips. "Just remember that you're on my mind everyday, Claire. And everyday that I can't be here, I'm hoping that tomorrow will be the next day that I can." He kissed her again. "I'll see you as soon as I can, Baby."_

_She smiled against his lips as she returned the kiss. "See you around, Agent Kennedy."_

_He smirked. "Sooner than you think, Ms. Redfield."_

_She looked at him strangely as he turned away and got into his jeep. 'What the hell did __**that **__mean? God! He's always saying something cryptic out of the blue!' _

_Leon buckled in, rolled down the window, and reached out to pull his girlfriend into one last kiss. He stared into her beautiful blue-gray eyes. He almost told her he loved her again. But he knew better. He wasn't putting himself through __**that **__heartbreak again. Claire didn't feel the same way, he got it, so there was no use burdening her with his feelings or himself with her rejection. That's probably what she meant when she said he sometimes made her feel guilty. It wasn't that he thought she didn't care at all. He knew she did. He knew Claire cared about him more than any other woman he'd ever been with. But without her love, they would never be able to progress their relationship beyond what it was. He leaned out the car window and kissed her passionately one more time, expressing his love for her in the only way he still could. She melted and held him tightly. Once they parted from each other, he smiled, stroked her cheek, and rolled up the window. Then he gunned the engine and pulled away._

_Claire started to cry the moment he turned the corner. She went for a walk to get it out of her system before facing her brother again. By the time she got back inside the house, Chris assumed her eyes and nose were red and watery from the bitter cold she'd decided to stroll around in._

"_Next time wear a coat, Dumbass," he said without looking up from the video game he'd started playing. His game character ran over a man that looked suspiciously like Albert Wesker. "Yeah! G.T.A., Motherfucker! Ten points!"_

_Claire rolled her eyes. At least now she knew where Sherry had gotten that from. To think Chris had influenced the girl that much when only in his company for about a week._

"_Leon gone?"_

_Claire sighed, a barely noticeable sadness in her reply. "Yeah. He's gone." Chris smiled to himself, but didn't comment. _

_He finished his game in silence for the next hour, and then got up to stretch. Claire had started their dinner while he was playing Grand Theft Auto. _

"_Dinner smells incredible. What are we having?"_

"_I made some chicken and dumplings."_

"_Cool. Comfort food sounds perfect right about now. It's freezing out there."_

_Claire nodded in agreement. "Just give me a minute to toss the salad." Chris sputtered his coffee and started to laugh. Claire sighed and rolled her eyes. "What now?"_

_Once Chris got his laughter under control, he asked, "Did you toss __**Leon's **__salad?"_

_Claire had to laugh herself. "That's fucking disgusting. No, I didn't toss his salad, you filthy fucking pervert!"_

_Chris went into the kitchen and sat at the table. He watched Claire putter around the kitchen with what looked to him like nervous energy. "Dude, you need to get laid." _

_Claire shook her head. "Don't call me a dude, Chris."_

_He chuckled, but he didn't stop staring at Claire with that knowing big brother gaze. "You've still got the hots for him, don't you?" _

"_I still have the hots for who?"_

"_For Leon."_

_She rolled her eyes again. "Chris, must we keep going back to this? Leon is my friend. Get your head out of the gutter."_

_He grinned and nodded. "Uh huh. Right. So . . . you don't care that he's gone?"_

_She slammed her salad tongs down on the counter. "Of course I care! He's my best friend, and I never get to see him! I wish he could have stayed, but he can't. Now can we please drop it?"_

_Chris put his hands up in a defensive manner. "Alright! Touchy! Bite my head off, why don't you!" He didn't say another word, but he was starting to suspect something was going on between his sister and his 'Bro'. Either she wanted him or she was still mad at him over Harvardville. Or maybe both. Maybe Leon had rejected her. Claire finished making the salad in silence. Chris sighed and decided not to bait her anymore for one night. He would have to keep a closer eye on those two though . . . that was for sure._

_Once Claire calmed down, she and Chris spent dinner talking and enjoying each other's company. They might have been good at annoying one another, but no one could ever deny that the Redfield siblings loved each other very much._

* * *

_Claire got dressed for bed while Chris watched her Shaun of the Dead DVD. She finished watching the movie with him once she was changed, and then pecked him on the cheek. _

_"I'm going to bed, Big Brother. Thanks for visiting me."_

"_Of course. Love you, Claire-Bear."_

"_Love you, too . . . Muscle Head."_

"_You suck, Dude."_

_She frowned. "I'm not a dude!"_

_Chris laughed. "You're so easy to piss off, Tomboy. G'night."_

_She rolled her eyes. "Good night, Chris."_

_Claire went upstairs and got into bed. She smelled Leon's cologne in her pillow. She frowned and swiped at her eyes again. After smelling it for a few minutes, she had to get up for a while and sat on the chair by her closet to get her head on right. _

_Once she felt like she could handle 'eau de Leon', she got back into bed. She lay awake, missing her daughter and her boyfriend for a while. About ten minutes later, she heard Chris turn off the TV in the living room and then the guest room door closed a moment later. _

_She sighed and closed her eyes, finally giving herself over to sleep._

* * *

_Claire awoke to a tapping sound. She sat up in bed and looked around. She didn't see where the sound was coming from. She was about to lie back down and return to sleep when it happened again. This time, she could tell for certain that it was coming from her balcony. Something . . . or someone . . . was rapping on her window. The blinds were drawn, so she couldn't see what was out there. Thankfully, whatever was out there also couldn't see in._

_She sighed and pulled her Browning. She contemplated telling Chris, but she decided not to wake him just yet. It wasn't like she couldn't handle a stupid burglar anyway, and if it turned out to be something more, the noise would bring her brother running. The problem was, she only had one clip for her gun in her bedroom. She shrugged._

_"Whatever," she whispered. She had a Bowie knife in the nightstand and a bat under the bed. "Average burglar's no match for me."_

_She tiptoed slowly to the balcony door, her gun held at the ready. Once she was closer, she could just make out a large male figure through the blinds outside her door. She took a deep breath, steadied her gun hand, quickly drew the blinds, and aimed at the man outside. When she saw who was out there, she frowned and snatched the door open._

"_Leon!" she demanded in a shocked whisper. "What the hell are you doing out there?"_

"_Freezing my ass off," he answered while casually leaning against the side of the house. "And you pointing guns at me when I visit in the middle of the night is becoming a bit of a bad habit on your part."_

_She blinked in confusion a few times, and then shook her head to clear the cobwebs. She put the safety on and lowered her weapon. "I'm sorry. Get in here, quick."_

_He smiled and bent to remove his shoes before he walked inside, closing the door behind him. He placed his shoes on the hardwood floor in her closet._

"_How the hell did you get up there?" she asked. _

_He smirked as he stood up from putting his shoes away. "Wouldn't __**you **__like to know?" _

_She stared at him in disbelief for a while then narrowed her eyes. "I thought you said you had to get back to D.C. so you could go to work in the morning." _

_He chuckled. "I lied. I never left Cumberland. I've been hanging out with Mrs. Steinbaugh and Pop-Tart at the inn chatting up Uncle Sean." _

_She frowned. "Why?" _

_He smiled. "Because they're awesome and my future aunt made me dinner again." _

_She shook her head and smirked at him. "No, why did you lie about leaving?" _

_He rolled his eyes. "I couldn't very well tell your brother that I was planning to stick around town so I could fuck your brains out tonight." _

_Her eyes widened. "Is __**that **__why you came back?" _

_He stroked her cheek. "Of course. We have unfinished business, you and I. I owe you a proper good-bye before I leave town." He kissed her softly, and sucked her top then bottom lip. He looked down at her nightgown. She was wearing a short black chemise with spaghetti straps. "You look hot in that. You'd look even hotter out of it."_

_She chuckled and shook her head vigorously. "Leon, Chris is still here." _

"_I know. I saw his humvee around the corner." _

_She looked shocked that he still wanted to go through with it knowing Chris was there. "We can't," she insisted. _

_He smiled and stroked her lips with his thumb. "Don't worry, Baby. We'll be quiet." _

* * *

_Leon and Claire stood at the foot of her bed. Her arms were up around his shoulders. His hands ran trails of heat up and down her back. She pulled away from him and smiled. "By the way, you look pretty hot, too. You changed your clothes." He had been in a sweater and jeans earlier. Now he was wearing a pair of gray slacks and a black button-down shirt that was tailored to fit his well-muscled torso._

"_Thanks." He pulled her close again and kissed her. "You look super hot in this little negligee." He quirked a dirty blond brow. "Say, why __**are **__you sleeping in something so sexy if you thought I was leaving town?"_

_She rolled her eyes. "Sherry threw all my comfy pajamas in the garbage after she forced me to buy all this sexy lingerie. She left me a note in my pajama drawer that said if she ever finds another flannel anything in my dresser when she comes home, she's gonna keep throwing it away."_

_He chuckled as he placed his hands on her shoulders and lowered the straps of her nightgown. "I'll buy you some more flannel pajamas and then I'll have a talk with her. I love how sexy you look in this, but you'll catch your death when the weather is this cold. Now then, enough about anything else but how you moan for me." _

_As he bared her skin, he kissed his way down her neck and onto her collarbone. She shivered with anticipation as the silky material slowly slid down off her chest. He leaned down to take her left nipple into his mouth then uncovered the other one and licked the very tip. She tilted her head back and moaned, per his request, as both nipples hardened to little peaks. She took her arms out of the shoulder straps and the little nightgown fell to pool at her waist. Her full, round backside prevented it from dropping to the floor. _

_He gave her breasts a squeeze with both hands, and then bent to tease them again. She gripped the back of his hair then ran her hand over his back. Her lips parted in a quiet moan when he placed his hand over her black satin thong panties and rubbed her pussy. She pulled his head back up to hers and assaulted his lips with her own._

_They kissed ferociously as she unbuttoned his shirt and he continued to rub her through her panties. They pulled away from each other and smiled. She pushed his shirt off his shoulders. He pulled her scrunchie off, freeing her locks in a spill of red silk layers. She tossed her hair over her shoulder. He grinned and kissed her throat where the hair was no longer hiding her porcelain skin. He kissed her lips once more, and bent to his knees. He kissed her breasts and grabbed both sides of her nightgown. He dragged it down, forcing it over her ass and hips. He pulled it off along with her panties, and slid them both down her thighs before letting them drop onto the floor. She stepped out of them and caressed his hair back off of his face so she could see the passion in his eyes as he looked at her in the nude._

_He kissed her groin, her belly, between her breasts, and then suckled her left nipple again. She caressed his back and shoulders. He chuckled against her breast._

"_What's so funny?"_

"_You're so fucking short, Baby." _

"_Fucker!" She smacked his shoulder. "Just for that, I shouldn't give you your final Christmas present."_

_He smiled and stretched out on her bed. He placed his hands behind his head. "You got me __**another **__gift? You shouldn't have done that, Sweetheart. You've already spent too much money on me."_

_She smirked. "I'll spend my money how I like, Dammit! Besides, I think you'll like this present best of all. Why don't you get comfortable? I'll go get your present." She walked over to her closet and put on her bathrobe. "I'll be right back." She grabbed a huge shoe box and a small black gift bag from the back of her closet and left the bedroom._

_While she was gone, Leon took off his pants and got under her blanket in only his charcoal gray boxer-briefs. When Claire returned, he was in mid-yawn._

"_You tired, Baby?" she asked from the doorway where she stood in a sexy pose._

"_A little," he answered as he rubbed his eyes. When he finally looked at her with a smile, his smile quickly faded away. "Wow," he muttered. It's the same thing he'd said to her two years before. All the suave went out the window once again as she blew his mind with what she was wearing._

"_You like?" she asked with a sly smile and a slow turn. He nodded as he looked her up and down, taking it all in. _

_While Leon was out of town between the two holidays, Claire and Sherry had made a special stop at a very unique lingerie shop near the mall. They specialized in biker themed intimates. Claire had asked them to make a lingerie knock-off of the outfit she had worn in Raccoon City the night she met Leon. Her outfit began with a black seamless bandeau-style bra-top that was supposed to represent the black t-shirt that she wore that night. Black boyshort panties represented the black biker shorts. A pair of pink brief cut panties with scalloped edges and a button and zipper over the front overlaid the black panties to represent her little pink shorts. The button was just for decoration, but the zipper went all the way underneath her to give the option of making the panties crotchless. _

_As sexy as that all was, the coup-de-grace of her outfit, the thing that delivered the one-two punch to Leon's libido, was the vest. Claire wore a short, fitted, midriff vest that was made of satiny hot pink material which tied across her breasts in the front, and pink leather in the back. What made it special was the perfect copy of the 'MADE IN HEAVEN' graphic that the lingerie shop's artist had put on the leather back of the tiny vest, using Sherry's hand-me-down vest as a guide. _

_Claire completed the look with a pair of biker boots and a pair of fingerless gloves, but not like the ones she wore in Raccoon City. The boots were black leather thigh high stiletto heels, and the gloves were fitted and made of black fishnet that went all the way up her arms and past the elbows. _

_And of course, her ponytail was back in place._

_Leon smiled into her eyes once he'd committed her current sexiness to memory. "You look amazing, Claire. I can't believe you did all this for me."_

_She caressed her cleavage with her fingertips. "My pleasure."_

_He smirked. She'd said that with a lot of seduction in her voice. "Come here, Gorgeous."_

_She smiled and started to meander across the room toward the bed. She took her time getting there, putting more effort into sexing up her walk than clearing any real distance. When she finally made it to the foot of her bed, she placed a booted heel on the mattress, grabbed the nearest bedpost, and swung herself up onto the bed. She wrapped her leg around the post and gyrated her hips. He smirked and held up a hand, beckoning her. She smiled coyly and shook her head no. He raised a curious brow, and she giggled. She gripped the high bedpost with both hands and pulled herself up into the air while doing a sideways split. He raised his brows and treated her to a slow, seductive grin. _

_Claire teased him with the moves she'd learned during the pole dancing lessons that she and Jill had been pressured into taking with Rebecca, who hadn't wanted to go by herself. To her surprise, Claire had enjoyed the lessons. Their instructor was a classically trained ballerina and gymnast. As Claire and Jill were themselves well-versed in gymnastics, they had been the star pupils. Claire had always wanted to try her moves out on Leon._

_After about five minutes, she slowly lowered herself to the bed, hanging upside down as she had ended her routine. She flipped herself onto her knees and crawled across the mattress toward him. When she reached his waist, she slowly pulled the blanket down to his mid-thigh. She reached over onto the nightstand and grabbed her iPod. She scrolled through the hip hop music list. There weren't many times that she listened to anything on that very short playlist, but in this case there were only three songs that she felt should be the soundtrack to what she was about to do to her man, and they were all rap songs. She copied them into a new playlist, which she titled 'Lapdance', and then hit play. She placed the iPod back on its speaker base, and lowered the volume as not to disturb Chris downstairs. After a few seconds, a woman's voice started to emanate from the speakers. _

"_Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it, turn it, leave it, stop, format it._

_Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it, turn it, leave it, stop, format it." _

_The woman's voice was joined by a slow hip hop beat after she'd repeated her line a couple times. Leon smirked. He knew the song well. Unlike his sweetheart, he listened to hip hop all the time. Busta Rhymes's hit 'Touch It' was a personal favorite of his and Ark's when they carpooled to work. _

_Claire crawled closer to his face and leaned close as if she were about to kiss him, but instead, moved away with a playful little smirk. Then, in one graceful motion, she swung her left leg over his torso so that she was straddling his pelvis. She looked down at his very evident erection as it strained against the inside of his underwear. She smiled. Her pole dance had definitely affected him. She thought it was time to 'stimulate his interest' a little more. _

_A moment later, the voice of Swizz Beats said, "Get low, Bus," before Busta Rhymes's voice flowed out of her speakers. Claire immediately started to slowly gyrate her hips over Leon's crotch. After a few verses of slow, soft rapping, Swizz Beats shouted, "Turn it up!" and Busta Rhymes's rapping became fast paced and louder. She was glad she'd turned down the speakers. Any louder, and Chris would definitely hear. _

_As soon as the music got louder, Claire stopped gyrating her hips and leaned on Leon's chest for leverage so she could bounce her ass. After a few moments, she combined the bouncing with gyration. He chuckled and reached around her to give her a quick spank. She smirked as the music slowed again. This time, she worked her torso as well as her hips. He sighed and placed his hands on her thighs, running a light caress up each leg. He glided his hands gently over her skin, relishing the feel of her goosebumps as much as the feel of her rubbing her sex against him._

_This continued for the duration of the song, with Claire alternating between slow bumping and grinding and fast booty bouncing. When the song started to wind down, she slid back off his lap and turned around. She slowly backed up. As soon as she started to inch backwards, the iPod played another rap song, 'Back that Thang Up'. Leon smiled and nodded his head a little to the beat of Juvenile's rap. _

_Claire took her time getting back onto his lap. Actually, she took the duration of the song. She stopped repeatedly to look at him over her shoulder and tease him by inching forward at times, or bouncing her ass at others. Claire's ass looked amazing in the lingerie, and she knew it. Leon's cock ached to have her grinding on top of him again, to get his hand on her ass, but she kept it just out of reach._

_When the second song ended and she had her rear end hovering over Leon's lap, Snoop Dogg's 'Drop It Like It's Hot' started to play. Snoop and Farrell laid down the flow that guided Claire's hips. She lowered herself onto his lap and began a very slow gyration over his groin. She pressed herself tighter against him this time. He moaned and reached out to caress her ass. _

_They continued to stimulate each other, her with her hips and ass, him with his hand. They pressed their groins together, moaning occasionally as the slow grind increased their desire. _

_Close to the end of the song, he tugged at her two pairs of panties. He smiled. Underneath, she was wearing a black G-string, probably to represent the black thong she wore that night. He looked up at her vest and lifted the leather to peak underneath at the bandeau bra-top. Was she wearing something to represent her black bra from that night as well? He was intrigued and couldn't wait to see for himself. _

_He pulled the rear of both panties all the way off her ass so he could watch her gyrate with nothing but a G string to block his view._

_When the last song ended, Leon slapped both of Claire's ass cheeks and leaned forward to kiss her over the two handprints. She giggled and moved away from him before turning around and settling on his lap again. She leaned towards him, only this time she actually did kiss him._

_When they broke the kiss, he muttered against her lips, "That was so fucking hot, Claire."_

"_You ain't seen nothin' yet, Agent Kennedy."_

_She kissed him one more time and crawled backwards until her face was just over his groin. She pushed the blankets further down, and Leon helped by bringing his legs out from under the covers then stretched them out on either side of Claire. She licked his length from root to tip while it was still encased in his underwear, her eyes smiling, never once leaving his gaze. He gripped the bed linens tightly as her tongue made its journey to his waistband. She then reached under the waistband and pulled out his cock. She settled the top edge of his underwear just under his scrotum. She lifted his penis and stroked it a few times. He was already rock hard and ready for her, but she liked teasing him._

_She ran the tip of her tongue slowly from the base of his shaft to the tip of his cock. He stiffened and then shivered as her tongue traveled up his length. She whispered a moan as she slowly took the head into her mouth. He groaned and clenched his teeth. _

_That night, Claire gave Leon probably the best oral sex he'd ever experienced. He reached out to remove her ponytail tie, and then stroked her hair out of her face, so he'd have an unobstructed view of what she was doing to him. _

_For the next ten minutes, she teased him, sucked him, licked him, stroked him, slurped him, and grazed him ever so lightly with her teeth. The intermittent sound of his quiet moans made Claire's sex tighten, but as anxious as she was to feel Leon inside her, she didn't want to rush things. Who knew when they'd see each other again after this? She wanted to make this night really count._

_She continued to suck him slowly, crossing her feet at the ankles and swinging them back and forth. That delightfully immature action made him want her even more. The innocence of it reminded him that the last time she was dressed sort of like this, he actually __**did **__take her innocence._

_Five minutes more, and he couldn't take it any longer. He got up to his knees with every intention of getting behind her and plowing her into the mattress, but before he could, she turned around and took him back into her mouth. He didn't need much coaxing on her part to convince him to continue to take things slow._

_He stared down at her for the next couple minutes as she stroked his sacque while sucking him deeply. _

"_Look up at me, Baby." She obeyed immediately. He moaned a little louder this time, always a sucker for those stunning crystal blue-grey eyes. "That's right, Claire. Let me see that beautiful face."_

_She smiled around his cock and then released him with a loud pop._

"_My turn," she ordered. "You're getting too close to cumming."_

_He chuckled and moved to kneel at the foot of the bed. "You're not wrong," he replied._

_He dragged her toward him by her ankles, and then positioned her so that his head was at the meeting of her thighs. "Open your legs wide and hold them there."_

_She nodded and did as instructed. Leon unzipped the crotch of the outer pink panties. What he saw beneath made his cock twitch and dribble a little with need. _

_The black boyshorts were crotchless. _

_He took a hold of the G string, the only thing covering her sex, and ripped the crotch string apart. He then did the same to the string at her right hip. She gasped and then whispered a shuddering moan as he dragged the remains of the string panties out of her boyshorts before tossing them behind himself._

_She leaned back on the mattress and smiled down at him. He grinned and moved closer to the edge of the bed. He pulled the hole of both pairs of crotchless panties wide apart and bent to lick her sex. She sighed and closed her eyes. He placed his fingertips at her nexus and slowly rubbed her in wide circles. Then he slid two fingers just as slowly inside her still holding open the crotches of the panties. He smirked when she cried out as he penetrated her with his fingers._

_After a few minutes of gentle foreplay, Claire had her head thrown back, her pelvis lifted off the bed, her hands fisted in Leon's hair. He leaned back and looked at her trembling form. There was a light blush to her cheeks, chest, and sex. Her pelvis shivered as she lowered it to the mattress. He smiled. "Feeling good, Baby?"_

_She sighed. "Mm hm." She stretched and opened her eyes to smile at him. "Come lie down. I wanna tease you some more. I'm not done with you yet."_

_He stretched out along side her, his head near the foot of the bed and pulled her on top of him so that their heads were at each other's groins. "I'm not done with you yet, either," he explained. She lifted his cock and took the tip into her mouth as he lowered her hips to delve his tongue into her pussy. _

"_Mmmm!" they both groaned in unison._

_As was per their usual when having oral sex in the sixty-nine position, it was an all-out battle of the sexes, no pun intended, to see who could drive the other one absolutely insane first. He moaned as she sucked him fast and deep, cupping and kneading his sacque, or caressing his six pack. She shivered and cried out every time he feathered his tongue over her clit or sucked it hard into his mouth, especially if he ran his hands up her arms and onto her breasts at the same time. When they made each other cry out and shiver all over, they decided to stop for the moment. Neither wanted the night to end with oral sex._

_Claire moved off of Leon and helped him to sit up. He put his cock back into his boxer-briefs and pulled her closer to him. She sat beside him and caressed his chest and shoulders. He pecked her lips. She returned the kiss, and smiled against his lips before she deepened the lip-lock. Before either of them knew it, they were making out like teenagers. Soft, gentle caresses, slow glides of slippery tongue against slippery tongue, heaving breaths, and mutterings of words of desire drove them both close to the brink of orgasm more than once over the next several minutes. _

_Leon untied the little satin strings that held the vest closed in the front of Claire's bosom. He broke their kiss to look down at her. "I almost don't wanna take it off you," he said. "It's so fucking sexy." _

_She smiled. "You can leave it on if you want. I don't mind."_

_He smirked. "Nah. I'd rather see you naked. That's sexier than any outfit."_

_She grinned and kissed him again as he slid the vest off her shoulders. He caressed her breasts through the bandeau top . . . and he could feel that there was definitely some sort of bra underneath. His curiosity outweighing his patience, he quickly pulled the bandeau up and over her head. Underneath, he found something that made his cock twitch._

"_How is that thing staying on you?" he asked, sounding perplexed and aroused at the same time._

"_It's a stick on bra." Claire was wearing a black, front-clasp, stick on pair of bra cups, which cradled and lifted her ample, natural D cups in a way that made Leon's mouth water to taste the nipples beneath. "Why don't you take it off me?"_

_He quickly obeyed, unclasping the front, and then peeling the bra off her breasts. He moaned as the cups slowly pulled away from her skin, revealing hardened little pinkish-beige peaks. He placed the bra cups on her nightstand and bent to taste her nipples. The adhesive didn't leave any trace of glue flavor, not that it would have stopped him if it had._

_As he caressed her nipples with his tongue, Leon caressed her body with his hands. Eventually, he pushed her legs apart and glided his hand down to tease her through the absent crotch of her two remaining pairs of panties._

_Claire couldn't take the stimulation. It was too much. She gently pulled his head up to kiss her lips again, and moved away from the seeking fingers of the hand at her sex. Leon took the hint and used both hands to caress her hair back off her face as he continued to deepen their kiss. _

"_Take off your underwear," she sighed into their kiss. While Claire darted her tongue in and out of his mouth, Leon's hands were shaking while taking his boxer-briefs off. Once he was totally naked, Claire lifted herself to her knees then straddled his lap. He placed a pillow behind his back and neck, then leaned back against the wall. He caressed her ass as she slowly ground her sex against his cock. He sat up to suckle her left nipple, then lifted his head to kiss her. She licked his tongue then tossed her hair back. He kissed her throat and then returned his attentions to her breasts._

_Claire continued a slow grind on Leon's lap as she savored the feel of his tongue on her nipples and his fingers on her sex. He had slid his hand down the crack of her ass to rub her through the opening in her panties. She moaned, her head still thrown back, her hair tickling his thighs as they moved against each other. _

_When his cock started to ooze a bit at the tip, Leon knew that he was no longer capable of waiting to be inside her. He moved her to the mattress, where she bent over on all fours. He got up to his knees behind her and took his cock in his hand. He spread the crotches of her panties and rubbed the head up and down her slit. He rubbed his palm across her back in a loving gesture of affection, and then pushed himself deep inside her._

_Claire's eyes widened and then fluttered closed as she moaned, probably a little louder than she would have liked with Chris in the house. Leon leaned over her shoulder and kissed her cheek. "Shhhh," he whispered against her ear before nibbling on her lobe. She turned her head slightly and placed her lips against his, the gesture almost, but not quite an actual kiss. He pulled his hips back very slowly, then slowly plunged back into her heat. "Mmmm," he moaned low in his throat._

"_Ohhhhh," she whispered against his lips. _

_Slow, sensual withdrawals followed by even slower deep penetrations . . . that was how Leon took Claire from behind for a good five minutes. They whispered moans across each other's lips with every plunge of his cock. When she shuddered and extended her tongue to lick the circumference of his lips, he sucked her tongue into his mouth and increased the speed of his hip movements. _

"_Ooooo . . . yeah. Like that, Baby. Just like that," she whispered. He groaned and sped up even more. "Oh, my God!" she exclaimed in a quiet little shriek. "You're gonna make me fucking cum!"_

_He certainly didn't want __**that **__happening so soon, so he got back up to his knees, changing the angle of penetration so that he wasn't hitting her G spot so hard. She trembled and sighed, lowering her face to the mattress to enjoy the ride._

_Leon continued to fuck Claire from behind for a while, not too hard, so as not to push her over the edge she was so clearly skimming along side. And then, __**he **__started to feel it. He definitely wasn't going to allow himself to cum. If she came, they could maybe continue, but if he did, the night's pleasure would be over. _

_He dragged her hips in close and repositioned them both onto their sides, with him still behind and inside of her. He started to move his hips again, holding her top leg in the air. She sighed and rested her head on her arm, enjoying the feel of his gentle thrusts. She slid her hand back across his chest and then up behind his head. She turned to look at him. Their eyes locked and they both parted their lips. Each one felt that the look on the other's face in the throes of passion was the sexiest thing they'd ever seen. Her moans got a little louder, but at this point neither of them cared if Chris heard. Claire caressed Leon's hair at his nape and then slid her hand forward to tease his lips with her thumb. He sucked her thumb into his mouth. They never broke eye contact._

_After another few minutes, Leon pulled Claire, still impaled by his length, into his lap facing away from him. She secured herself on her high heeled boots, her hands pressed into the mattress on either side of Leon's torso, and then she leaned her back against his hands. He held her up securely as she began to bounce up and down on his cock. Her moans got even louder, and he moaned a quiet reply. He lifted his hips rhythmically, meeting her thrust for thrust. Finally, he just grabbed her thighs to still her movements, and began rapidly lifting and lowering his hips, his hard rod pistoning easily in and out of the wet, pink heat of Claire's pussy. _

_She trembled and wheezed out a high pitched noise before her breathing stopped entirely. When she was able to speak again, she whispered, "I'm cumming."_

_He moaned. "I feel it."_

"_Not yet," she whispered. "Please, Baby. Not yet."_

_He sighed and stopped thrusting up into her. He pulled out and engulfed her in his arms. She trembled almost continuously as she tried to mentally calm her body down. Finally, she closed her eyes, and with one last shuddering breath, she knew she'd pushed her orgasm back for the moment. However, she knew she'd never be able to hold it off again if she let him put his cock right back in her, so she moved to place her face at his pelvis._

"_Ohhhhh, Claire," he moaned in anticipation. He really couldn't get enough of her mouth on him. _

_She kissed his sacque, staring up into his eyes. She slowly licked his cock, stopping midway up his shaft to kiss it. Her tongue glided up the rest of his length then circled the head before she took it into her mouth. She caressed his face and pushed her fingers into his mouth. He moaned as she increased the pressure and speed with which she sucked him. She moaned in response to every sound he made. Finally, she entwined her fingers with his as she stroked him with her other hand to take up the slack of what couldn't comfortably fit into her mouth._

"_Lick the underside again, Baby." _

_She did as he asked, teasing him with rapid little licks. He shivered and sat up. She had to release his hand because his grip was becoming a little painful as his pleasure built. When she feathered her tongue against the underside of the head of his cock, he pulled quickly away from her mouth._

"_Problem?" she asked with a seductive little giggle._

"_She-Devil! You know what the problem was. You were trying to make me lose it."_

_She smiled. "Me? Never."_

_He laughed quietly and sat up to kiss her. He then flipped her over onto her back. "Yes, you. We'll just see how __**you **__like being teased without mercy."_

_He bent to kiss each of her inner thighs then shoved his tongue between her labia. He feathered his tongue in little licks up her slit and then teased her clit, as promised, without mercy. She cried out and tried to pull away, but he put his arms under her hips, and used both hands to hold her in place in front of his mouth. _

_He tortured her clit until she was shaking continuously. Her moans were loud and her voice was getting hoarse. "Ohhh! Please, Baby! Please stop! You're gonna make me cum!"_

_He smiled up at her then kissed her slit. She shivered a little, but this time she smiled at him, too. It was a sweet gesture on his part. She felt a little flutter in her chest when he did it one more time._

_He was about to turn her on her back, but she stopped him. "Let me get on top."_

"_Wanna go for another ride, Baby?"_

"_Yippee-kayay, Motherfucker."_

_He smirked and moved to his back. "That's my cowgirl."_

_She straddled his lap again, this time facing towards him. He held his cock up for her and she impaled herself on it. "Christ, Leon. You are so fucking big."_

_He chuckled. "Thank you."_

_She started to move up and down his length. "You better thank me. I'm not the kind of woman who likes to stroke a man's ego, but that thing is a monster. I can't help but kowtow a little." He chuckled again. "Now, shut up. I'm trying to fuck you, here."_

_He grinned and bent forward to suckle her nipple. 'If she doesn't want me to talk, I can always find something else to do with my mouth.' She smiled down at him, then turned and looked down to watch over her shoulder into the mirror as his cock appeared and disappeared from under her ass as she bounced on it._

_He released her nipple and pushed her hair back off her face so he could see her in profile. She turned to face him. They smiled at each other. She reached back and caressed his scrotum as she bounced faster. He moaned and squeezed her breasts. She grinned at him as she made him cry out. He narrowed his eyes at her and crossed his hands behind his head. "You can rub your own tits if you're gonna be cocky about it."_

_She laughed. "I'd rather just let them bounce, thanks." _

_He moaned and said, "So would I." He braced his feet on the mattress so he could thrust up into her as she bounced on top of him. The deeper penetrations wiped the smile off her face. He smirked a little as he saw her cheeks flush with renewed passion. She smirked and leaned forward to kiss him. _

"_Yeah, yeah. You're fucking the shit out of me. Down, ego, down."_

_He chuckled. "Want me to take over for a while?"_

"_Sure . . . you can be on top. Promise not to crush me with your swelled head?"_

_He smirked. "Which one?" She laughed out loud then clamped her hands over her mouth. Leon shook his head. "Forget it. If Chris didn't hear us already, then he didn't hear that either."_

_Claire chuckled more quietly and then moved to lie on her back. He moved to kneel between her thighs. He paused for a moment and tilted his head. "Baby? Would you be offended if I remove the panties? I mean, they're super sexy and all, but like I said, your naked body is sexier. I dig the outfit, it brings back great memories, but now I just wanna see my Claire."_

_She smiled and caressed his cheek. "I swear, Kennedy. You're the only man that gives me butterflies. I almost feel like a girl around you."_

_He grinned. "Almost?"_

_She shrugged. "As long as I can out-drink you, you're the chick in this relationship."_

_He shook his head. "Uh . . . do I __**really **__need to remind you how drunk you got New Year's Eve?"_

_She closed her eyes and laughed. "Fine. You're the man . . . for now, anyway." _

_He smiled as he pulled both pairs of panties down her legs. "Well, if I'm not man enough for you, maybe I should just get dressed and leave. I mean, you've got a couple vibrators. What the hell do you need me for?"_

_Claire's smiled disappeared. "Oh, Sweetheart . . . did I cross the line again? If I did, I'm sorry. I was only joking." _

_He looked at her with a little confusion, but he didn't stop smiling. "So was I."_

_She closed her eyes and sighed in relief. "Jesus. I thought you were serious."_

_He leaned down to kiss her. "Nope. Just being a smartass. I wouldn't leave you unsatisfied. I care too much about you to ever be that cruel."_

_She smiled again. "Thanks, Baby. Thank you for sticking around and coming back to make me feel good. I know you're probably gonna be tired tomorrow because you did this for me, and I just want you to know how much I appreciate it."_

_He grinned and kissed her again. "It's as much for me as it is for you, Claire." His face got serious as he kissed her again. "I needed you tonight." _

"_I needed you, too."_

_He placed his cock between her labia. "I could tell." He pushed his hips forward, and entered her in one slow thrust. "Ohhh God, Baby. You look so good when I'm fucking you." He grabbed one of her hands and one of her legs. "Especially in these gloves and boots." He ran a hand over her hips then up her waist and onto her breasts. "You have such amazing curves. You're the hottest woman I've ever been attracted to. The fact that you love sports, guns, Harleys, and booze just makes my cock that much harder."_

_She moaned as he started to move deep inside her. "You look so sexy when you're on top of me, Leon. So fucking muscular." She caressed his cheek. "And ridiculously handsome. Seriously, you should be arrested for how good-looking you are. It's a crime against womankind." _

_He kissed her. "Thank you. Since we're doling out complements, I suppose I should let you know, I'm gonna kick the shit out of the next man who stares at your tits for more than five seconds." _

_She giggled. "Okay, Chris." He gave her a very disturbed look. She returned the look. "Sorry. I was just trying to make the point that you were being as overbearing about men as he always is, but that probably wasn't the right thing to say while you're balls deep inside me."_

"_Not so much, no." They both chuckled then kissed. "Now, shut up. I'm trying to fuck you, here." _

_She laughed out loud when he threw her words back at her. She reached around him to slap his ass. "You're the most fun boyfriend ever, Leon."_

_He smiled. "How's this for fun?" He moved faster inside her._

"_That's nice, Sweetheart," she answered. She reached down to rub her clit while he moved inside her. She smiled up into his eyes. He caressed her inner thighs. She shivered and moaned. He watched her breasts jiggle with the force of his thrusts. _

'_God, I love those things,' he thought. "Play with your tits for me, Baby." She moved her hand from her clit to tease her nipples. She kneaded her breasts then tweaked their peaks. "That's right. Like that. That's nice. Your breasts are so perfect, Claire."_

_She sighed and closed her eyes. "That feels so incredible."_

_He pulled her legs up to his shoulders and leaned over her. He kissed her. "How does it feel now?" he muttered across her lips._

_She ground her teeth as he moved inside her, clenching his hair at the back of his head. "It's so deep like that." _

_He moved slowly inside her, but he penetrated her completely on every thrust. "Feels so good deep inside you, Sweetheart."_

_She moved her hands to grip his arms. "God! You are so __**fucking **__big!" she gritted out._

_He slowed to a stop. "Claire, am I hurting you?"_

_She looked up into his eyes and shrugged. "Maybe a little."_

_He smiled and kissed her before withdrawing. "Wanna stop?"_

_She shook her head. "No, Baby. Just sometimes that position is a little uncomfortable."_

"_Okay. How can we do it so it doesn't hurt you?" She bit her bottom lip and thought for a moment. He smiled. "Think fast. That look is a little too sexy to ignore."_

_She giggled. "How about we lie on our sides and you take me from behind? It never hurts like that."_

"_Okay." She moved to her side and he stretched out behind her. She lifted her leg and he held it up for her. He pushed his other arm under her neck then bent his arm to grip her breast before he plunged back inside her. He kept his thrusts gentle and shallow, and he teased her breasts to increase her pleasure in the hopes that would decrease her pain. "Better?" She moaned unintelligibly. He smiled and kissed her cheek. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."_

_She dropped her head back on his arm. He kissed her throat and told her how good she felt. She caressed the hand he used to toy with her breasts. He studied her face. Her eyes were closed and her lips were parted. 'So sexy,' he thought._

_They continued to make love at a leisurely pace for a few minutes. Claire finally opened her eyes. "Leon?" _

"_Yeah, Baby?"_

"_I'm close."_

_He nodded. "I'm not, but I'll stop whenever you're ready."_

"_We can keep going after, but I need to cum now. Harder?"_

"_Okay. Hang on. Let me get up." He moved to his feet and dragged her to the edge of the bed. He stroked his cock a few times and then rubbed it up and down her pussy before he pushed it inside her. _

"_Oh God, Baby."_

"_Feels good?"_

"_Mm hm."_

"_Hurting you?"_

"_Uh unh."_

"_Okay." He moved inside her for about a minute. When she moaned loudly and spread her legs into a split, he leaned down to kiss her and plunged all the way inside her._

"_Yeah! Hard, Baby! Hard like that!"_

"_Shit, Claire. You just got so tight."_

"_Fuck!"_

"_Come on. Cum for me, Baby."_

"_Ahhh . . . GOD!"_

_Leon plunged all the way inside her and stopped moving. Claire's entire body shook violently as she came hard. It took her over a minute to get her breathing right even once it was over. She was feeling pretty lightheaded, but her pussy felt oh so good._

"_That was amazing, Claire."_

_She nodded and pulled him into a tight hug. "You didn't cum."_

_He shrugged and leaned back to stroke her face. "It's not important."_

"_It is to me. Are you close?"_

_He smiled. "Closer now that I felt that orgasm."_

_She smiled. "You're not close at all?"_

_He shook his head. "Sorry."_

_She chuckled. "Don't apologize." She stretched and got up from the bed. "Be right back. I gotta pee."_

"_Too much information."_

"_You should talk."_

_He grinned and moved to lie on his stomach. He sighed and closed his eyes. He knew he shouldn't get too comfortable. He still had a long drive home. When Claire came back, he told her that he could stay for maybe another hour._

"_I need to get back to D.C. after that, but I want to hold you for as long as I can."_

_She stretched out beside him and placed her head on his chest. "Honey, can I ask you a question?"_

"_Of course."_

"_Do you know why I chose to buy that outfit?"_

_He shook his head 'no'. "I assumed to make me crazy with wanting you, like __**that **__wasn't already the case."_

_She giggled. "Yeah. That's part of it. But there was another reason." She took a deep breath, exhaled, and said, "Leon . . . Sweetheart . . . I'm ready to give my last virginity to you. And I thought it would only be fitting that I wear an homage to the outfit I wore when I gave you my first one."_

_He stared down at her for a moment. "Are you telling me you want me to have anal sex with you?"_

_She nodded. "Yeah. Still wanna just cuddle?"_

_His face was serious for a moment, and then he kissed her hard. When he broke the kiss, he rolled over and started digging through her nightstand drawer. "Lube. We need lots of lube." He found the pink leopard vibrator he'd given her. He pulled it out. "To get you started. If you can't take this, you can't take me. I've hurt you enough for one night. I won't do it again." He finally found a bottle of massage oil. He quirked a brow. "Are you sure no man has been in this bed but me?"_

_She laughed. "I bought that for you, in case you ever came here after a mission and needed a little TLC. I've also replenished my condoms. You should wear one while you're in the back door. Otherwise, the front door's off limits for the rest of the night."_

_He nodded. "Fair enough." Leon reached into the nightstand and pulled a condom. He checked the expiration date, and then put it on. "I'll buy you some more oil, but for your first time having anal sex, we need to use a lot."_

_She shrugged. "Like I said, I bought it for you. If this is how you want to use it, that's fine by me."_

_Leon smiled and opened the bottle of oil and poured a little on his cock, wetting the condom. "You know, Claire, even with everything I do to keep you comfortable, this may still hurt. I mean, it could hurt a lot. If you want to stop at any point, just tell me."_

"_You sound like a man who knows what he's talking about. You've done this before?" He nodded. "With how many girls?"_

_He did some mental arithmetic for a moment. Finally, he answered, "Eight."_

"_How many said it hurt a lot?"_

"_All but three. The rest said I was too big and asked to stop. If it hurts, I expect you to tell me to stop, too. With the last three, I used a ton of lube, so they said it only hurt a little in the beginning. And for the record, all of them had done it before."_

_She swallowed. Now, she was a little scared. She took a shaky breath and shook her head. "Well, we'll just have to see how it works out."_

_He leaned down to give her a kiss, then picked up the vibrator. He turned it on full force and rubbed it against her clit. She closed her eyes and laid back on the bed. When she spread her pussy open, he pushed the vibrator inside. She moaned and rubbed her clit._

_After a few minutes of building her passion back up, Claire snatched the vibrator out of Leon's hand and started fucking herself with it. She got up onto her knees and bent forward on the mattress, until she was in a doggy style position. After another minute or so, she took the vibrator out and turned it off. She dropped it on the nightstand. She gave Leon a 'come hither' look, and rubbed her pussy. "I don't want another vibrator in my ass. I know how that feels. I want you." _

_He nodded and stepped up onto the bed and bent down behind her, opting to stay on his feet and just balance with one hand on her backside. _

"_Bend your upper body down onto the mattress so you lift your ass." She did as he instructed. "Okay. That's good. Now, try to relax. I'm gonna put it back into your pussy first to get it nice and wet." _

_She nodded. "Whatever you think is best."_

_He positioned himself at her opening and pushed inside her. He fucked her for a few seconds, then said, "Wow. You feel good even through a condom."_

_She smiled against her arm, where she was resting her head. "Glad you think so."_

_After another minute, Leon withdrew and stood up straight. He looked down at her ass in the air, and shivered. He grabbed the oil, popped it open, and poured a pool of it into his hand. He rubbed his cock with his very oily hand, getting it drenched. Claire looked up and watched him preparing. She moved her legs further apart so she was lying on her stomach instead of up on her knees. She kept her back arched._

_Leon poured a little oil onto his fingertips and bent to rub her anus. She sighed and closed her eyes. She really did love that feeling. She hoped she could take him that way. If she could, she knew it would be amazing. _

_He poured more oil on his fingers and rubbed her anus again, this time pushing his middle finger all the way inside her. He closed the oil and dropped it onto the bed beside Claire, just in case he needed more. She lifted herself back up onto her knees. _

"_You ready, Beautiful?"_

_She nodded. "And waiting."_

_Leon got down on his knees, looked at her ass, and then got back to his feet. He needed to enter from above, not behind, even with how short she was. He spread his legs apart until he was able to place his hands on her ass. "Okay," he breathed, sounding a little nervous. He really didn't want to hurt her. "Here we go, Baby." She closed her eyes tightly and bit her lower lip. He noticed. "Don't do that. If you need to do something to brace yourself, grip the sheets or purse your lips. If you bite them, you may draw blood when I put it in." He took one of her hands and kissed the back. "Baby . . . this will probably hurt more than when we did it in your vagina for the first time. I'm so sorry." _

_She nodded. And then she cried out in pain. _

_He had barely put it in. It was really just the head of his cock stretching her ass open, but Leon was thick. It hurt so much more than she'd expected._

_He withdrew. "Try to relax your ass, Baby. It will hurt more if you clench."_

_She nodded and did the best she could to do as he'd instructed, just as she did when he bust her cherry in Raccoon City. "Okay. Try again."_

_He bent over again and placed his cock against her smaller orifice. He pushed the head in again. She took a breath and exhaled, but she didn't clench. He started to move, very slowly and very shallowly. She didn't cry out again._

"_You okay, Baby?"_

_She nodded. "I'm okay."_

"_Feel good? Bad?"_

_She sighed. "Good, I think. I don't know yet. It feels . . . weird." _

"_Like you have to go to the bathroom?" She nodded. He smiled. "Everyone says that at first. It will feel better if I put it in further. You wanna try?" _

"_Yeah. Just be gentle."_

_He smiled. "Always." Leon slowly penetrated her deeper. "Rub your clit, Sweetheart. It'll help." She did as she was told, and sighed in relief. It actually did help. And after a little while of getting used to the feeling, she realized that it felt wonderful. Leon was thick and long and hard, and his cock felt so much bigger in such a tight orifice. He fucked her slowly, but he plunged it deep on every thrust. _

"_Ohhhhh."_

_Leon smiled. "It feels good, Baby?"_

"_Ohhhh. Oh, Sweetheart . . . it's so good. It's different than anything I ever felt, but it's so nice. Don't stop." He moaned and moved a little faster. "Fuck!"_

"_Jesus, Claire!"_

"_Oh!" _

_She continued to moan, a high-pitched little shriek that drove him insane. He gradually increased the rate of his thrusts until the bedposts were hitting the wall._

"_You feel so fucking good, Claire! I fucking __**love **__your ass, Baby!"_

"_Mmmmm!"_

"_You can't even talk, it feels so good!" He slowed down but pressed his cock deeper inside her. _

"_Oh! Oh! Oh, yes! Oh, right there! Ohhh, it feels so good!"_

"_You're so sexy." He slapped her ass and pulled out. "Get on your back. I wanna see your breasts bounce while I'm inside you."_

_She smiled and did as he said. "I can't believe how good that feels."_

"_Doesn't hurt?"_

"_Oh, it smarts, alright. But it feels so much better than it hurts." She saw the worried look on his face. "Dammit, if you even __**suggest **__that we stop, I'll kick your ass." She rubbed her clit and spanked her sex. "Now get over here and do me some more." She jiggled her tits. "Come on, you know you want to."_

_He chuckled. "You're a naughty woman, Claire Redfield."_

_She wiggled her eyebrows. He grinned and knelt between her legs. He tilted her legs back and pushed his cock back into her anus. _

_Leon's moans were quiet. Claire's were loud. He moved deep inside her, hard and fast. She cried out. _

"_Oh fuck! You feel so fucking good!" she yelled._

_He bent to kiss her. "Shhh. Seriously, I like Chris, but I don't want him seeing me naked."_

_She giggled. "Sorry."_

"_No worries."_

_He continued to pound away at her. Suddenly, she pulled his hips against hers and then held him in place. She leaned up and kissed him. "If I can't yell," she whispered. "You can't put holes in my walls with my bedposts."_

_He chuckled. "Sorry."_

_She smiled. "No worries, Baby." She used his favorite expression and then kissed him again. "Besides, I think we should stop. Much more of this and I'll be walking all day tomorrow like a cowboy who spent his life riding a horse."_

_Leon laughed. "Front door then?"_

"_If you want it."_

_He pulled out and took off the condom. He wrapped it in a tissue and dropped it in her wastebasket. "I want it." Leon stripped Claire out of the rest of her outfit. He tossed the boots and gloves on the floor. The boots made a loud thud._

"_Shhh," she said. _

"_My bad." He flipped her over. "Get down low and arch your back. That was sexy when you did it before."_

_Claire positioned herself as he'd asked. "Cum inside?"_

"_That was the plan." Leon sank back inside her pussy. "Fucking shit, Claire."_

_She moaned and lowered her face to her arms as he immediately started to pound her hard. "Fuck me harder," she whispered._

_He did as she said again, and then smacked her ass. He fucked her for five minutes like that. He suddenly withdrew and turned her onto her back. She lifted her legs onto his shoulders. He leaned forward, bending her almost in half. He stroked his cock and then put it back inside her. He moved his hips fast. She moaned and caressed the backs of his thighs. He shivered and fucked her harder and faster. She gripped his thighs and tossed her head back. He leaned up and grabbed her by the waist. He pounded her again. He gritted his teeth._

"_I'm gonna cum, Baby."_

_She moaned. "Oh, God! Inside! Do it inside!"_

_He lifted her torso and she arched her back. "So close!" he gritted out. "Ohhhhh, God! It's so tight!" he groaned. "I'm gonna cum so hard in you!"_

"_Baby!"_

"_Claire!"_

"_I'm cumming too!"_

"_FUCK!"_

"_SHIT!"_

_He stiffened as he climaxed. She did the opposite. She couldn't stop trembling._

_Once he was able to move again, Leon slid his hand up onto her breast and rubbed her nipple with his fingertip._

_She wrapped her legs around his back and pulled him down on top of her. She sighed and smiled against his neck._

"_Thank you for coming back tonight, Leon."_

_He smiled and kissed her. "Anything for you, Claire."_

_She smiled. "Hold me for a little while?" _

_He nodded. "I'll give you another hour."_

_She kissed him. "I don't wanna make you late."_

_He shrugged and moved to lie beside her. "Too drained to drive right now anyway." He pulled her into his arms and covered them both with the comforter they'd thrown on the floor. "Too wired from sex to sleep though."_

"_Pillow talk?"_

_He nodded. "Pillow talk it is."_

_They spent the next hour just catching up. The conversation turned to sex a few times, mostly with them telling the other how incredible a lover they were. Leon kissed her head and thanked her for letting him do anal with her._

"_Oh, my pleasure." _

"_Sore?"_

_She chuckled. "Extremely. I think I'll take a shower when you leave."_

_He smiled. "Probably a good idea. It'll get rid of the oil too."_

_She nodded and tucked her head into the crook of his arm. She hugged his torso and sighed. "I'm gonna miss you, Stretch."_

_He sighed in return. "I'm gonna miss you, too. But I promise that it won't be two years before you see me again."_

_She smiled. "Relationships are a two way street. If it took two years for us to see each other, that's half my fault." _

_He kissed her forehead. "Yeah, but at least you never made a promise you weren't sure you could keep."_

_She caressed his abs. "No, I just broke up with you and then cheated on you."_

_He chuckled. "You didn't cheat. If you cheated, I cheated."_

_She shook her head. "You wanted to stay together. I messed it up. I broke us. I blamed you for something that wasn't even your fault and made you feel like you needed to make it right. And you did. You found Sherry __**and **__Steve. You brought our daughter home to make me forgive you. But you didn't do anything that needed forgiving."_

_He smiled. "I still say you didn't cheat on me."_

_She kissed her way across his chest. "You should have been my one and only. I'm so sorry I did it with anyone else."_

"_Claire . . . I don't want to talk about it. Not after we had such a wonderful holiday. Now, you didn't cheat on me, and that's final." He couldn't take talking about this. Especially since she really __**did **__cheat on him . . . but not __**after **__they broke up. She cheated on him with Steve when she was supposed to be trying to get home to him._

_She sighed and caressed his chest. "I guess we'll just agree to disagree. But I can tell you this much . . . I was faithful to you this time." She kissed his cheek. "And I understand if you weren't."_

_He chuckled and kissed her head again. "Of course I was faithful, Baby. Why do you think I've been fucking you six ways from Sunday?"_

"_You did that after a four month dry spell. Doesn't mean you weren't gettin' busy at __**some **__point over the past two years."_

_He laughed. "I swear! I haven't been with anyone but you!"_

_She smiled and kissed him. She changed the subject. She wasn't sure that she believed him, and she didn't want to ruin a beautiful night with petty jealousy. "I'm so tired, Baby. I'm gonna take a little nap. Please don't leave without waking me."_

"_I won't." He pulled the comforter up over her shoulders and wrapped his arms more securely around her._

* * *

_Leon held her until the hour was up, then he woke Claire and got up to get dressed. As he put on his clothes, she watched him, hugging her pillow underneath her chest. _

"_Stay tonight with me, Leon. You can leave before dawn. Chris will never know." _

_He smiled and bent down to kiss her before going to her closet to grab his shoes. "I can't. I have to go to work too early to stay any longer than now." _

_She lowered her gaze to the blanket. "I understand." She sounded so disappointed. Leon sighed. He hated saying good-bye to her._

_He walked over to the balcony door. She watched him put his shoes on, sitting on her changing stool. "Are you going back out the window?" He nodded. "Why aren't you just gonna use the front door like you left after Harvardville?" _

"_Because your older brother wasn't sleeping in the guest bedroom downstairs the last time I came here to have sex with you." _

_She chuckled, got up, kissed him, and told him that she understood that his work comes first, but she will always be waiting for him. _

_He placed his forehead against hers, and then closed his eyes and sighed. "I promise you that one day I'll make things right for us too, Claire . . . for our relationship." _

_She smiled and told him to drive safely. She didn't comment on his promise because she didn't believe a word of it. She didn't think he'd ever be a constant in her daily life. What mattered was that she knew he wished that he could be._

_He hugged her, kissed her one more time, and then left the way he came. "Good night, Claire," he whispered before doing a back-flip off her balcony. _

_She shook her head, muttered, "Show off," and then closed and locked the door._

_She went back to bed. She hugged her pillow. She could smell his cologne even better than before, in the sheets, in the pillow, in the comforter, on her skin. _

_She smiled. "Until next time," she whispered. She laid down, covering herself. Engulfed in his scent, she fell asleep. As slumber took her, two tears fell from her eyes. "Be safe, my love," she whispered._

* * *

_At that moment, Claire was the only one asleep in her house. In the bedroom beneath her own, Chris was laying in bed with a pillow over his head, growling in frustration after the sounds of some random dude plowing his sister upstairs finally stopped._

* * *

Leon and Chris sat on the couch in equal parts shock.

"I can't believe that you were the guy who fucked Claire that night."

"I can't believe you heard us."

"I can't believe she was able to keep that from me for two whole years."

"I can't believe you heard us."

"I can't believe I didn't even _consider _that it might be you."

"I can't believe you heard us."

Chris looked at Leon, finally registering his friend's shock. Chris frowned darkly. "You were loud. You didn't even _try _to be quiet while you were fucking my sister, knowing that I was in the house. Do you think I'm deaf or did you just not care how I'd feel about that?"

Leon did not like the look on Chris's face. He looked like he might seriously be contemplating killing him. "Hey, don't give me that look. I _told _you the last time had to do with you."

"I thought you meant because I helped you find Sherry, not that I was physically there!" Chris gritted out from between his teeth.

The younger man shrugged. "That, too." Leon looked at Chris critically for a while, wondering if he should run for it. Instead, he asked him a question. "In all honesty, since you never came rushing into the room to see what all the noise was about, I just assumed you were still sleeping. I mean, if you heard some guy fucking your sister, why didn't you bust into the room and chase him . . ."

"You."

Leon sighed. "Fine. Why didn't you chase _me_ out of the house bare-assed naked?"

"Because it wasn't my house. It was Claire's house. And despite what you seem to think, I _do _respect the fact that she's an adult."

Leon sighed. "I know you do. And I _did _care how you might feel about what happened. I didn't mean for us to be so loud. It's just she kind of makes me lose my shit. And I hadn't had sex in two years before I brought Sherry to her house."

Chris nodded and took a final gulp of his bottled water. Two years . . . as in the last time Leon was with Claire. His friend had been faithful to his sister. No wonder he needed the sex so badly. Chris could understand that. He remembered the way he and Jill made the walls shake when he got her back to his place after Africa. Especially with that new long, blonde hair. He smirked and looked at his friend. This time _he _was the one studying Leon critically. His poor friend looked absolutely drained. It couldn't have been easy to unload all that emotional baggage about Claire in the first place, let alone to Claire's older brother. He smiled and clapped his friend on the back. "So that was number five, huh?"

Leon nodded. "Yeah. Sorry you heard it all."

Chris waved a dismissive hand and chuckled. "I would have done the same thing to you if I was banging _your _sister."

Leon's face turned red and he frowned darkly at Chris. A moment later, Leon blasted him in the gut with a lightning-fast fist. "Come near my baby sister, and I'll break your knees!"

Chris grabbed his middle and immediately cracked up, despite how much it hurt. "You've got a lot of fucking nerve! And the last time I checked, I wasn't into fifteen-year-olds!"

Leon smiled, and then laughed with him. "Sorry. Reflex."

"It's cool. And by the way, that wasn't five times, that was like six times . . . no wait, it was even more times than that the two of you had sex."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was. You just told me that you had sex with Claire like three times the night before New Year's Eve while Sherry was out on her first date with Kenny."

"Yeah, but I only had one orgasm, so that was just one encounter in three parts . . . Like The Lord of the Rings!"

"It's sex, not a trilogy. And even if I _was _generous and called all that one time, you were together in the hotel on New Year's Eve _and _that night after I got to Claire's place. That's a total of seven, not five."

"Oh, that. I was grouping all that together, too. I mean, it _was _one holiday."

Chris looked at him like he was insane. "Dude! It was _two _holidays!"

"One holiday season. Besides, we couldn't have sex at Christmas. It was her period."

Chris had opened his mouth to say something, but after Leon's ridiculous response, he just started laughing. "I don't wanna hear about her period!" Leon laughed when he saw the look of disgust on Chris's face. "And look here, you can't just group together all the sex that happens in one week as one sexual encounter!"

Leon looked at him, blinked a few times and then asked, "You can't?"

The two men laughed their asses off. Finally Chris gasped out, "You're so fucking stupid!"

Leon chuckled. "Back at ya, Bro. And fine. Seven it is, then."

"Damn right, it's seven . . . minimum! You mathematically-challenged feeb."

Both men chuckled then Leon finished drinking his water.

"Hello! Where are you guys?" Jill's voice carried from inside the house.

"Come help with the groceries, lazy shits!" Claire added.

"Alright, Godammit!" Chris shouted back.

"Hurry up!" his sister hollered in reply.

He frowned. "We'll be right there! Christ!" He turned to Leon with a smile. "You've got strange taste in women, my friend. That one just might be the death of you."

Leon chuckled. "Maybe . . . but what a way to go."

Chris smirked. "Good answer." He clapped Leon on the back. "Thank you for sharing all that with me, Bro. You letting me into yours and Claire's inner sanctum has reassured me that my sister has picked well for herself in the romance department. I know you love her, Leon. I know how far you'd go to be there for her, to protect her, to make her happy. I'm sorry I doubted you, and I'm even sorrier that I didn't talk to you first instead of just taking Claire's side of things while she was still angry." As per her usual, once Claire wasn't angry anymore, she had never gone back to Chris to say, 'Hey, by the way! Leon's not the dick I made him out to be!' _or _gone to Leon to say, 'Hey, Leon! I never fucked Burnside! April Fools!' He sighed and shook his head. His sister needed to work on that cruel streak, and especially her inability to go back and set things straight.

Leon smiled. "Thanks, man. That means a lot."

"Not a problem. And by the way, if you ever decide to make her a Kennedy, you have my blessing, but only once you've been cleared by a shrink, because if you propose to her, you've clearly lost your mind." Chris stood up and stretched while Leon laughed. "Oh! And if you happen to want to rock her world while you two are staying here with us this week, well . . . that's okay, too. Just try to keep it down. I need my beauty sleep, you know."

"You sure do, you ugly son of a bitch."

Chris smiled and gave Leon the finger before going inside. Leon watched him go with a look of peace on his face. Finally, he got up to follow his brother-in-arms, perhaps someday brother-in-law, into the house.

* * *

The rest of the night went smoothly. The girls had their hair and nails done for the wedding while they were out, and _then _went to the supermarket. That's why they took so long. Claire and Jill cooked Chris's favorite meal from childhood, Beef Stroganoff with buttered egg noodles and sour cream. They ate well, and Jill cried when Chris said dinner was just like his mom used to make. The men did the dishes, then Chris and Jill went upstairs to get ready for bed while Leon sat outside on the patio relaxing.

Claire came out and joined him. She found him with his eyes closed and his head on the back of the sofa. He looked tranquil. She smiled.

"Hi, Sweetheart."

He smiled at the sound of her voice but didn't open his eyes. "Hi, yourself," he answered.

"Mind some company?"

He shook his head and extended his arm to her. "Not at all."

She moved across the couch to snuggle up beside him. She leaned her head down onto his chest and wrapped his arm around herself. He sighed and began to caress her back.

"Did you guys have a nice afternoon?"

He nodded. "We did. Plenty of male bonding."

She smirked. "I'll bet."

He chuckled then opened his eyes to look down at her. "You look beautiful." The mid-autumn weather was cool at night in northern Virginia, so Claire had changed into a pair of jeans and a purple and lavender striped sweater. She kissed his cheek as a thank you. "How about you?" he asked. "You and Jill were gone a long time. I see you both got your hair and nails done. Did you enjoy yourself? I know how much you hate beauty rituals."

She sighed. "It was nice actually. Sometimes, acting like a girl makes for some good _female _bonding." He closed his eyes and nodded. She stared at him for a while, unspeaking. Finally she said, "Leon . . . ." She sighed a little anxiously. "Honey, I need to talk to you about something."

He opened his eyes and gazed down at her. "What's up, Baby?"

"I . . . um . . . I told Jill . . . about us."

He nodded. "Did you?"

She sighed and closed her eyes. "Yeah. We were at the beauty parlor. She asked me flat out if I'd ever had sex with you, and I said 'yes'.

He smiled. "You look upset about it."

She shook her head. "Well, I mean . . . I'm not upset unless I've upset you."

He shook his head. "I'm not upset. As a matter of fact, I owe you an explanation of my own. Chris kind of cornered me today and made me tell him about us. He asked me the same question, and I also said 'yes'."

"You told my _brother _you've been fucking me?" He nodded. She quirked a brow. "Wow. And you're still alive." He laughed. "So, how did he drag _that _out of you? I know you wouldn't have told him without good reason . . . considering how afraid you are of him." She finished her comment with a playfully taunting smirk.

Leon made a rude sound. "I'm not scared of your brother, Claire. But he's like a brother to me, too. I thought that telling him would end our friendship. _That _was what scared me."

"I was only teasing. I know that." She grinned and kissed his cheek. "So why _did _you tell him?"

Leon sighed. "Sherry."

"What about her?"

"When I asked Chris to help me find her, it was the day I went to check on him for you."

"I remember. You guys told me that the day he visited me after we took her to college."

"Right. So Chris was wallowing in self-pity and contemplating quitting the BSAA when I found him at Terry's Pub, trying to drink his grief away. He was really in no condition to be going on a mission, but he did it anyway . . . for you _and _for me. I was so grateful to him, Claire. I couldn't have gotten her home without him. He even knew the area because he'd been stationed in Germany and visited Fucking while he was in the Air Force. That's when he stole the road signs. After it was all over, I told him that I owed him big time, and that if there was ever anything I could do for him, he just had to ask."

"Okay. So?"

"So, at first when he asked me about you today, I refused to tell him. Then he reminded me of my promise and said this was what he wanted me to do as repayment."

Claire frowned. She knew how much of a blow that must have been to his integrity. He must have felt like Chris was putting him in a position to either betray him or betray her. "That's awful, Sweetheart. Want me to go upstairs and beat him up for you?"

Leon chuckled. "Nah. He and I are cool. He gave his blessing for our relationship."

She smiled. "He better have."

Leon pulled her into a kiss. "It was actually cathartic. I've only ever told Ark about us, a lot of help talking to Ark ever is, and then Ark told Bruce, which meant he was one more person for me to talk to about our relationship, but no one has ever given me the good advice that your brother did today. I'm actually grateful to him for pressuring me into this man-to-man. It didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. I think it actually made my friendship with Chris a lot stronger."

"Yeah? Well, that's what Kenny always says about talking to you. He looks up to you, you know."

Leon smiled. "I know. He's a great kid. Love that boy like a son these days, despite our rocky beginning. I'd do anything for him just like I'd do anything for Sherry."

Claire smiled. "Likewise."

Leon stared into her eyes. "So . . . what did you tell the girls at the salon about me?"

She quirked a scarlet brow again. "You really wanna know?"

He nodded and kissed her cheek. "Come on, Baby. Spill."

* * *

"_Come on, Claire. Spill," Jill insisted from the neighboring shampoo sink. "I know you've at least been fooling around with Leon, if not knocking boots with him."_

"_Oooo! Gossip!" one of the other hair salon patrons exclaimed. "Who's Leon?"_

_Claire started to say her best friend, but Jill cut her off. "He's this really hot guy who's been friends with Claire for like a decade, and I happen to think she's fucking him."_

_Claire rolled her eyes. "Fine. So I'm fucking him. Your point is?"_

_Jill's eyes widened and she sat up and stared at Claire, then she suddenly started laughing and got up and hugged her, practically strangling her future sister-in-law, and completely wetting both of their clothes. "Oh, Claire! Oh, I'm sorry about the t-shirt. But that's so awesome! Is it a casual thing or is it serious?"_

"_It's . . . complicated."_

"_No shit," Jill answered with a laugh. "Have you two been dating long?"_

"_On and off since we met."_

_One of the other women asked, "Is he good in bed?"_

_Claire blushed hotly and trembled a little. "You better believe it."_

_Jill bust out laughing. "Claire Elizabeth Redfield! Did you just fucking __**shiver **__thinking about having sex with Leon Scott Kennedy?"_

_Claire laughed. "So what if I did? The man is gifted."_

"_Gifted with skill, or gifted with size?" one of the younger patrons asked. All the women in the salon started to laugh. _

_Claire smirked. "Both. Dear, sweet Jesus . . . both!" The women all laughed even harder._

_One of the older ladies asked, "Will there be wedding bells in the future?"_

_Claire's smile fell. She sighed and answered, "Probably not any time soon."_

"_Why not?" Jill asked. _

"_Jill, come on now. We live three hours apart, and you know why we can't move closer together. A long distance relationship is hard enough when we're just dating. Being married and only seeing him every couple years would just drive us both insane."_

"_You only see each other every couple years?" Nina, one of the stylists, asked._

"_Well, not most recently. Leon and I have only actually had sex a handful of times." She thought about it for a moment, then began ticking off each encounter on her fingers. "Let's see. He took my virginity the night that we met, after . . . uh, that incident in New Hampshire . . . ." She looked at Jill pointedly to let her know that she meant Raccoon City. "That was like ten years ago. We had sex in a hotel room about two weeks after that. He went into training with the government and so we didn't hook up again until four months after that. And then that day we had a falling out after we made love, and we didn't see each other again for another five or six years, when we, um . . . reconnected. Then there was the winter holiday season that Leon brought Sherry home. And then we visited his family about six months ago, which he better not ever tell Chris. I also tried visiting him about eight months after we had been together over the winter holiday two years ago, but he wasn't home. He was off on a mission and he didn't get back until after I had to go back to work." She smiled. "His cat likes me."_

_Jill smirked. "Well, it's not hard to get on Honey's good side. She loves everybody." Claire chuckled. "And by the way, when you stopped speaking for like five years, was that about your daughter?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_You have a daughter together?" Mimi, the salon owner asked._

_Claire nodded. "Sherry's our adopted daughter. She's in college now."_

_Jill smiled. "Is Sherry coming to my wedding?"_

_Claire nodded. "And she's bringing her boyfriend Kenny."_

_Jill beamed. "I've been dying to meet them both."_

_Claire smiled. "You'll get your chance. Be ready, Sherry's a handful."_

_Jill nodded and smiled, but she was quick to get back on the topic of Claire and Leon. "And, was the Harvardville incident when you and Leon . . . reconnected?"_

_Claire nodded. "After that, we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend again. We couldn't see each other very often, but we talk just about everyday by phone."_

"_Yeah. So I've noticed. When's the last time you two got together again?"_

"_Six months ago at his parents' house."_

"_Really? They let __**you **__into Ohio without an armed guard?"_

_Claire chuckled and gave Jill the finger. "Yeah. Before that we hadn't seen each other in about a year and a half, when he and Chris brought Sherry home. But don't ever tell Chris. He cracks under pressure easily when he's talking to Leon's dad because he's like a war hero. Chris turns into a fucking groupie with Poppa Kennedy. He'd blab in no time that I had sex in the man's house if Poppa Kennedy just asked him about the weather."_

_Jill smirked and nodded. It was definitely true. "Why would it matter to Leon's father?"_

"_Because the last time we were intimate was in Leon's old bedroom. We didn't tell them we were even together romantically. We felt it was too much to hit them with all at once since they'd only just met me. We slept in separate rooms, and then he snuck into my room in the middle of the night."_

_Jill smiled. "Details, Dollface."_

_Claire shrugged. "Sure, why not?" _

_Unlike her boyfriend, Claire had zero reservations about telling an entire room full of strangers, let alone Jill, about how, when, where, and in what positions she fucked Leon every time she fucked Leon. This went on for a good hour, with Claire telling all the salon patrons and employees about Leon's prowess as a lover in vivid detail._

_Finally, fanning herself after hearing about their first ever anal, Jill asked Claire, "What about the time at his folks' place in Ohio? How'd that go?"_

_Claire took a swig of mineral water and continued. "Well, Leon was sleeping in the TV lounge on the pullout couch. He's such a gentleman, he gave up his childhood room for me. I kind of got a little nosy and started going through his old stuff." _

"_Looking for dirt on old girlfriends?" Jill asked knowingly._

_Claire laughed. "Stop telling all my secrets. Anyway, I found a bunch of photos, a few pictures of his high school sweetheart, and finally, his yearbook." She swigged her water again. "Did you know Leon was a jock in high school?" Jill shook her head. "Neither did I. He looked so cute with his tight buns in that tight baseball uniform." She smiled a distant smile and rubbed her thumb absently across her bottom lip. Jill let that continue for all of about thirty seconds before she snapped her fingers in front of the redhead's face. _

"_Earth to Claire."_

_Claire chuckled. "Sorry. That's how I got into trouble that night, too. Daydreaming about Leon's buns."_

_Jill laughed. "Yeah? What happened?"_

_Claire grinned and shook her head. What a crazy memory. "He caught me masturbating to his picture in the middle of the night." Claire chuckled. 'You'd think I'd learn to stop doing that after the whole Kenny business,' she thought._

"_What?" Jill demanded. "Oh my God, Claire!" she laughed. "You are out of control!"_

_Claire smiled. "Maybe so, but the sex was fantastic."_

"_You little tramp, you!" Jill said with a chuckle. "And how the hell did he catch you if it was so late?"_

"_He had to pee. He walked past the room and heard me moaning his name. He peeked inside, saw what I was doing, and went on to the bathroom to pee and __**he **__said to laugh at me. He went to the kitchen for a snack next. When he finished eating and washing his dish, he came back and peeked inside the room again. He found me sleeping that time. So, he came in and closed and locked the door." Claire smiled. "God, that was a hot night."_

"_What does he look like?" one of the other women asked._

_Claire pulled out her wallet. She had a few pictures of him, including one she'd taken of him walking into her room after a shower, the morning after their rekindling due to the Harvardville incident. That was the one she showed to the women in the salon._

"_Holy mother of God!" Sheila, one of the hair stylists muttered. "That man's body should be illegal!"_

_Claire laughed. "That's what I always say!" _

_One of the customers commented. "Your friend was right, Claire. He __**is **__ridiculously handsome. And look how confident he looks. He doesn't even care that you took this picture."_

"_Forget all that!" Doreen, the nail stylist said. "Look at those baby blue eyes, and that grin." She turned to Claire. "You poor baby. He must be able to talk you into anything."_

_Claire laughed even harder. "See? You feel my pain! Do you know how easy it would be for that man to convince me to buy the Brooklyn Bridge from him with just a smile?"_

_Jill shook her head in amusement. "I'll bet. But truth be told, you could easily get him to buy it back from you by wearing any of the wide assortment of daisy duke shorts and tight low-cut t-shirts you seem to own."_

_Claire smirked and shrugged. "I guess you're right. And you should see the picture I gave him of me. I took it on his bed with his cat."_

"_Uh huh. So I take it there's two pussies in the photo," Jill replied. Claire laughed and said no. "Well, maybe not, but I'm sure it's still intended for mature audiences." _

_Claire nodded. "Mature audiences that don't contain my brother or his parents."_

"_Well, my future husband goes without saying, Sis. But do his parents at least know that you're dating, __**now**__?" Claire shook her head no. Jill sighed. "Aren't they coming to my wedding?"_

_Claire nodded. "Yeah. They're bringing his uncle. Sean and my neighbor Mrs. Steinbaugh have been writing each other for two years. We figured it was time they meet."_

"_And are you gonna tell them about your relationship when they come?" Claire shrugged. Jill shook her head and sighed. "Claire, tell me the truth here, Baby-Girl. Are you serious about him or not?"_

"_Of course I am. Leon is my heart."_

"_And do you want to have with him what Chris and I are about to have?"_

_Claire's eyes welled up. "More than anything, Jill."_

"_Then Honey, you need to talk to your man. Straighten out your relationship once and for all. I mean, take it from me, Claire. Tomorrow isn't promised to __**any **__of us. You have to at least __**try **__to make the most of today." _

* * *

Leon was serious as he listened to Claire tell him about the salon.

"Jill said that?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "I happen to agree with her. I want more than this, Leon. More than being your pen pal and occasional lover. I want what Chris and Jill have. We deserve to be as happy as they are."

Leon narrowed his eyes. "And what about Steve?"

Claire looked confused. "What about him?"

Leon stared into her eyes, his own suddenly appearing hollow. "Can you finally let him go, because if you can't, there's no hope for our future. I'm willing to visit you on every day off I have from now until we're old and gray. I've already given you a key to my condo so you can feel like you're able to be in my home whenever you want, that my home is _your _home, and that can be how it is for the rest of our lives. But I can't be the man you settled for if you ever want us to be more than we are. I deserve better than that."

Claire was silent as she stared at him for a long while. Finally, she responded. "Leon . . . . what the fuck are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Claire. Geniuses aren't very good at it."

She frowned. "Are you seriously starting a fucking argument with me right after I told you I want us to take our relationship to the next level?"

He sighed. "I'm not trying to start an argument, but considering how you've always made me feel about Steve, I don't think it's too much to ask for you to tell me where I stand with you now, before we take any next step."

"Where you . . . Leon, what the hell does where you stand in my heart have to do with Steve Burnside?"

Now it was his turn to frown. She really intended to play stupid about this. "Oh, I don't know . . . perhaps the fact that I've always stood _behind him _in your heart might have a _little _something to do with it!"

Claire stared at him. "Are you accusing me of having had feelings for _Steve_?"

His frown darkened. "No . . . I'm reminding you that you already _told _me you were in love with him!"

"What? When?"

"Claire . . . ."

"Leon, really. I'm being serious here. I know you're mad at me, but I really don't understand why you think I'm in love with Steve!" She pleaded with him, desperation, not anger coloring her tone. She was losing him, and she didn't even know why. Her eyes welled up. "Baby, are you breaking up with me? Is that what came out of your conversation with my brother? That you don't . . . you don't want me anymore?"

His heart broke at the sight of the glistening tears that filled her eyes. "No . . . no, Claire. That's not what I'm trying to say." He stared at her for a moment. "You honestly don't remember?"

"Remember _what?_"

"Telling me that you were in love with Steve . . . that you had sex with Steve."

"_What?"_

"Claire, don't you remember our argument when we found out Wesker took Sherry?" She shook her head 'no'. "Are you fucking kidding me?" She shook her head again. "Jesus Christ, Claire! I haven't forgotten a single fucking word! Everything you said to me . . . everything I said to you . . . it all still hurts to this day! How can you not remember?"

"I was angry! I don't know what I said! I thought we put all that behind us!"

"Oh sure. Just let it go, right? After I dreamed of nothing but you for four months while Jack Krauser made me his own personal punching bag! But because I couldn't get away from the training facility, my prison, to come save you without being shot on sight, you told me I failed you so you fucked the first ready dick available! And then fell in love with him! And when I told you I loved you, you just didn't say anything!"

"Oh, God," she whispered. "I think I remember some of that." She looked at her boyfriend. He looked so defeated. "Oh, Sweetheart . . . Sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean any of that. It was all a lie."

"Sure it was."

"Oh, no! Please, Baby! You have to believe me! I was just upset about Sherry! I should never have said that! I never loved Steve! And I certainly never had sex with him!" Leon just shook his head and sat up, gently pushing her off his chest. That's when the first of her tears fell. "Oh, God! I _am _losing you, aren't I?"

He looked at her again. "I . . . I don't know. I didn't think so earlier." He looked down at his hands. "But, I don't appreciate you trying to fix this . . . this pain I've been carrying for so long with a pretty lie. I accepted the ugly truth a long time ago. For you to try to make this right by telling me what I want to hear . . . it's immature and insulting. I know I didn't go to Harvard, but I'm not stupid."

She threw her hands up. "Here we go again with this Harvard bullshit! I told you before that I think you're one of the smartest men I know. I don't care where you went to college, or what degree you got. Hell, I never even got to _finish _college!"

"Because of an outbreak. Chris told me how smart you were in school. You were high school valedictorian. You would have graduated with honors if Umbrella hadn't ruined your chances to finish your education."

"So? So, I went to an ivy league school and you went to a community college. So what? You graduated top of your class at the police academy! And you got honors with your associate degree! Your mom showed me! You were salutatorian! And who cares anyway? Does any of that matter? Does where we went to school mean you and I can't be together? Can't love each other?"

Leon's frown returned. "You go too far, Claire! Don't mock my pain! I know you could never love me! You love Steve!"

She bit her bottom lip as not to join him in a shouting match. "Leon . . . I'm not the one who loved Steve. I'm not the one who had sex with him." She took a breath. She hated breaking this promise not to tell, but she was losing her man. She knew the one she promised would understand, and encourage her to break her vow of secrecy. "Leon, _Sherry _is the one who loved Steve."

Leon stood up. "That's a fucking lie!"

"No, it isn't. Sherry was in love with Steve. He loved her, too. They were prisoners together after Wesker reanimated Steve. They grew into adulthood together. They fell in love over the years, and then lost their virginities together on Sherry's eighteenth birthday. See? He was still a virgin when he died the first time. it's like I said, I never touched him."

"Whatever."

Claire finally lost her temper. "Don't _you _fucking mock my daughter's pain! Wesker found out about them, you know! He found out and he . . . ." Claire's eyes began to leak as she cried for Sherry and Steve. "Leon, he tortured him . . . he tortured him and he made her watch. When he finally died, she was grateful. Can you imagine wishing the person you love the most would die just so someone would stop hurting them?"

Leon remembered the pain on Steve's face when he found his body. He remembered the way the young man was cut open. His organs, his genitals, all in jars. 'Wesker probably took his penis first, just so they could never make love again.' He looked into his beloved's eyes. He knew it was true. "Okay. Okay, I'm sorry. I was wrong to make light of it." He closed his eyes and groaned. "God, I talked about blowing up his body right in front of her. No wonder she was so angry with me in quarantine."

Claire sighed and nodded. "Yeah. She told me about that. She felt like she couldn't even tell you why she was upset with you. Then you started accusing her of loving me better, and she stopped being so hard on you. But the damage was done. I can tell you that she eventually saw things my way, but it wasn't easy. Eventually though, I got her to understand that it was better for Steve's body not to be used by any of the evil pharmaceutical companies anymore. Not Umbrella, not TriCell, not WilPharma."

He sighed and nodded. "I guess I gave his necklace to the wrong girl."

"Yeah. Don't worry, though. I gave it to her when we got home from New York."

Leon sighed in relief. "Thanks." He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was getting a headache. 'Too much booze and drama.'

Claire stared at him for a while. He could feel her gaze on his face. He finally turned to face her. She reached out tentatively and caressed his cheek.

"Have you been carrying what I said to you all this time? Thinking I didn't care about you? That I loved Steve, and resented you for not being him? For not saving us both so he wouldn't be dead?"

He nodded. She shocked him when she burst into tears. He sat in stunned disbelief for several seconds, and then finally sighed in defeat and reached over to pull her into his arms. "Come on, Claire. Don't cry."

"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed into his shirt. "I can't believe I did that to you! I'm a terrible person! And now, I've lost you forever!"

He smiled, elated beyond belief. "You're really not in love with Steve, are you? You don't wish I'd died instead of him?"

She cried even harder. "Oh, God! Did I say _that _to you?"

He shook his head. "No. Not in so many words . . . but it was written all over your face. Especially when I told you how we found him at the facility in Fucking. I saw two things in your expression at that moment: you wished I'd been the one who died, and you hated me for blowing him up."

She caressed his cheek again and kissed him. "Leon, I was sad that Steve's body had been so desecrated by Wesker. I wasn't upset that you'd blown it up. It was an empty shell after he died. But it was disrespectful to his memory for those . . . monsters to keep using him for experiments. I wasn't angry with you, Baby . . . well, I mean maybe a little at first, but it was a gut reaction, and my common sense pushed away the visceral response right away." He nodded. "Because I was grateful to you for destroying his body so it couldn't be used as a T-Veronica virus Petri dish anymore. I told you that!" Suddenly, she sat up and glared at him angrily. "I can't believe you said I wished you dead! I have never wished you the slightest bit of harm! I've never wished you anything but happiness! Hell, I would die in your place! How could you say you love me and think that I want you dead?"

"I didn't say you wanted me dead. You just seemed to prefer Steve were alive if one of us had to die."

She stared at him for a moment. She then broke eye contact and stared at her hands in her lap. Finally, she grabbed his head with both of her hands, forcing him to look her in the eyes.

"Leon, Sweetheart, you have got to be the stupidest man I've ever met, and college has nothing to do with it. I won't deny that what I said all those years ago was hurtful, how I acted was terrible, and the fact that I never took it back was wrong. But after all we've been through since then, together and apart, after all the moments, the kisses, the caresses, the tender words we've shared, if you could think that of me, that I could _ever _wish you harm, then when you said you loved me you lied to me."

He shook his head. "Claire, I've never loved any woman _but_ you, but I can't pretend you didn't tell me you were in love with Steve and I would never be equal to him in your eyes. Your words. _And _you said he was better in bed."

She closed her eyes, too late to stop two tears from falling. "Leon, I never had sex with Steve. I can be . . . cruel when I'm that upset. In truth, I thought of him like a little brother, if anything. I regretted not being able to save him. I couldn't have been in love with him, Leon. He was a kid, only sixteen when we met. I was twenty. I had been with you, with a real man. I wouldn't have been satisfied with a child. And even though I know I left the hotel in Atlantic City in a bad way, I still considered myself to be your girlfriend when I met him. I'd always thought we were together for four and a half months and then broke up over Sherry."

He sighed. "Claire, it's not necessary to lie to me to make me feel better. I know I was just the back up plan. It's okay. I'm just happy that you weren't in love with him . . . I've accepted the fact that you were intimate. I'm okay with it, really."

Her jaw dropped in disbelief. She then frowned . . . and punched him in the face. "You bastard!"

"Ow! Dammit! What the hell is wrong with you Redfields?"

"What the hell is wrong with you? How dare you accuse me of lying about something like that!"

"Look, you're either lying now or you lied then, so you shouldn't be pissed with _me!_"

She welled up. "I _never _slept with Steve!"

"Yes, you did! Now, I'm not mad that you did it, but I won't be lied to about it! And it's not like you only told me once! I mean, you told me again that you did it after we met up in Harvardville!"

"What? When?"

"When you asked me about whether we should use a condom! I said I always wore one with every girl so I was clean! You said I didn't wear one with you! I said you were a virgin when we had sex, and you said not the second time!"

She blinked a few times, completely perplexed. "So? I wasn't."

"Yeah, because you'd been fucking Steve."

She frowned. "No, because I'd been fucking _you, _you fucking retard!"

His eyes widened. "Wait . . . you meant me?"

"Yes! Who the fuck else would I mean?"

"Then why would it matter the second time whether I wore a condom or not if the only person you were talking about was me?"

"I wasn't throwing Steve in your face, Asshole! I was just making an observation!"

Leon looked at her with complete shock for almost a full minute. "I can't believe this shit. We must have the worst communication of any couple on the planet."

"No shit!"

They both just stared off into the yard again. Neither said anything for a few minutes. Finally, Leon broke the silence.

"I'm sorry."

Claire wiped away tears. "I'm sorry, too."

"I misunderstood and then I kept drawing the wrong conclusions."

"Is that what Sherry meant? When she told me two years ago that she thought you didn't believe I loved you?"

"I never told her about Steve, but yeah, she said that you were gonna miss me when I left because you loved me so much, and . . . ."

"You implied that I didn't," Claire finished his statement for him with a dejected sigh. She looked over at her boyfriend . . . at least, she hoped he stayed her boyfriend. His expression was full of pain, confusion, and loss. Maybe if he'd believed she loved him, he might have tried a little harder to be together more frequently. How much must it have hurt to love her so much and think she didn't feel the same way. Why did he even stay with her? Why torture himself like that? Then she thought about what she would have done if he'd told her that he loved and had sex with Ada Wong but was willing to settle for her since Ada was dead. Her eyes immediately welled up. It would have hurt like hell, but she would have done the same thing. She loved him so much, she would have taken whatever he was willing to give her. She reached out and grabbed his hand, interlocking her fingers with his. "Leon . . . please don't take it that I'm blaming you. I mean, I recognize that this all stems from me walking out on you and then saying hurtful things to you that I didn't really mean and never took back because I didn't even remember later. But didn't you believe anything Chris told you today about what I told him the morning after you and I were together two years ago?"

"He didn't say anything about it."

She looked at him in shock; "Did you tell him you think I don't love you? And about what I told you about Steve?" He nodded. Claire frowned darkly in the direction of the upstairs window that opened off of Chris and Jill's bedroom. "I can't believe he pressured you into talking to him and then didn't tell you the most important proof he had about how I feel about you! Granted, at the time I said it he thought I was talking about another man, but after your talk he knew it was you!"

"What do you mean?"

She sighed and turned to him, forcing a sad little smile. "When Chris got up in the morning, I found out that he'd heard us. He was being a general pain in the ass as usual so I told him how I felt about the man I'd had sex with that night."

* * *

_The next morning after Leon left, Chris teased Claire about late-night visitors. _

_She smirked and asked, "How'd you know I got my period last night?" He pulled a very disgusted face and she cracked up. "God, Christopher! You're such a pansy about the menstrual cycle. I was only fucking kidding!" _

_He frowned at the insult, and then smirked at the chance to wipe the grin off her face. "That's not the kind of visitor I meant. I was thinking more along the lines of a visitor of the male persuasion." _

_Claire's face paled. She wasn't ready to tell Chris about her and Leon yet. Especially since Chris had just lost Jill. _

"_I have no idea what you're talking about," she hedged. _

_He chuckled. "Of course you don't. But maybe Leon does." _

_Her eyes widened and she swallowed past a lump in her throat. "Leon doesn't know anything." _

_Chris nodded. "That's right. And what are you gonna give me to keep it that way?" _

_She looked confused. "What?" _

_His grin broadened. "Oh, come off it, Claire. You and Leon were at war for the longest time about God only knows what, although I imagine it was probably about Sherry's kidnapping, and now you've been speaking again since Harvardville." _

_She frowned. "So? What of it?"_

_He laughed. "Ooo! Touchy!" He laughed even harder when she gave him the finger. "Hey, don't shoot the messenger, Claire-Bear. I'm just saying . . . it's obvious that you still want to ride the 'Kennedy Express'. And I bet you think maybe some day you will, but He doesn't know about your little boy-toy who snuck into the house last night to fuck you silly. And if you want it to stay that way, you'll make with the bacon and pancakes this morning." _

_Claire realized that Chris had no idea that Leon was the man she was with. She smiled. "Fuck your breakfast! There's cereal in the pantry. Tell Leon whatever you want. He's my best friend. He won't care. And besides, I happen to love the man I was with last night. I love him with all my heart and soul . . . I always have. And I'm never giving him up for anything." _

* * *

Leon appeared to be in shock as he listened to her recount what she told Chris. "Claire."

"No, please . . . just let me finish." He stopped talking and waited patiently for her to continue. "Leon . . . there is only one man I have ever loved." She moved closer to him and took his right hand in both of hers. "He's the man I trusted my life and my virginity to in Raccoon City without doubt or remorse. He's the man I gave my soul to almost ten years ago, the man who met me one second and then saved my life a moment later." He shook his head in disagreement. "Yes, Leon. It's always been you. I told Mrs. Steinbaugh that two years ago right in front of you. I thought you understood. But despite everything we've been to each other over the years, one stupid thing I said in the heat of anger like a lifetime ago was all you remembered." She looked out into the yard. "I don't know which one of us I'm angrier with."

"That's not fair. You can't put that on me. You also told her that Sherry was away at boarding school before she came to visit you. I thought you were just trying to give her an uncomplicated back story." He shook his head to clear it. All those beers were definitely making him sick now. "Claire, other than that one time, when have you ever told _anyone_ that you loved me? I've told you that I love you one time in the past, and you made me feel ill at ease with ever saying it out loud again. Why did you never say it back? Why did you never say it at all?"

She had a brief flashback of a conversation with Sherry about calling him before getting wasted because she missed him so much. She was supposed to tell him she loved him, but instead she said something stupid like he smelled good or some such nonsense because she was so drunk. She sighed. 'I have more of Chris in me than I sometimes like to admit.' She kissed his cheek. "Because I'm a bad girlfriend, that's why I never said it back. You're right. I remember you told me. It shouldn't have taken ten years for me to tell you the same, especially considering how the day you told me ended. But when I told Mrs. Steinbaugh that we were in love, I meant it. _And _I've told Sherry."

He looked down at where their hands were locked together. He extricated his hand from her grip. "Then why, Claire? When I told you that I loved you that day four months after our first separation, why didn't you say it back? You looked . . . uncomfortable with the fact that I was in love with you. It made it easier for me to believe you about Steve later that day."

She welled up again. "God, I never realized how all that must have looked to you, but when you put it all together, I can see how you'd think this way for so long." She couldn't even face him now. "I know I made what should have been a major milestone in our lives together just an absolutely awkward moment, but the only reason I got so quiet was because it brought back bad memories. You see, Steve had told me he loved me right before he died. I felt guilty about that for so many reasons. I didn't feel the same way, I didn't save his life, I couldn't keep my promise to bring him home. I felt responsible for him, and I'd failed him. Hearing you say those words, if it weren't for what happened with Steve, I would have told you the same. And then I started thinking what if you died because you told me you loved me." She wiped her eyes, which welled up again at the prospect of losing her beloved. "I never even considered the fact that it would seem to you like I was rejecting you, Baby. I'm so sorry."

He sighed and dropped his head back onto the top of the couch. "Can we stop talking for a while . . . maybe pick it up again tomorrow? I mean, I get your explanation, and I believe you never had sex with Steve, but all this heady emotional stuff is giving me a bit of a migraine. I think I'm too drunk to have this conversation."

She smiled, and then she laughed. She leaned over and kissed him. "Yeah, I noticed." She kissed him again. "It's fine, Sweetheart. We can take a break from our talk. But, since I made you wait so long to hear it, let me clarify for you, once and for all, how I feel about you." She kissed him again. "I, Claire Elizabeth Redfield, am madly, truly, deeply, completely, and hopelessly in love with you, Leon Scott Kennedy . . . and I have been ever since I asked you to make me a woman, _your _woman in Raccoon City." She kissed him again. "And I am so, so sorry that I ever gave you reason to doubt that. I thank you so much for never giving up on me."

Chris's voice carried outside from somewhere on the second floor inside the house. "And Claire thanks her older brother for forcing the Rookie to talk about it so you two would finally cut the shit!"

The couple laughed. Claire yelled back, "And I thank my nosy-ass, lunkhead, overbearing, juiced-up older brother for pressuring my poor, unsuspecting, amazing-in- bed boyfriend into talking about our relationship against his will! Despite being a big, dumb muscle-brain with a drinking problem, he has his moments of usefulness!"

Chris chuckled. "Brat! Did you _have _to add that 'amazing-in-bed' part?"

"As long as it made you uncomfortable, Peeping Tom, then yes!" Claire replied.

"Isn't it called a 'Peeping Kenny'?"

"Hey! Don't talk shit about Sherry's boyfriend or I'll tell Jill where you're _really _going for your bachelor party!"

"Why, you little . . . ."

"CHRIS!" Jill's voice drowned him out. "GET YOUR ASS AWAY FROM THAT WINDOW AND LEAVE THEM THE HELL ALONE!"

Chris opened the window and whispered outside, "You win this round, Pipsqueak. But I shall have my revenge."

"_NOW!_"

He sighed. "Married life is gonna be _awesome!_" he said sarcastically before pulling his head back inside and shutting the window.

"'I shall have my revenge'. Wow. Didn't you once tell me he accused you having a nefarious plot or something?" Leon nodded. "What a tool."

Leon and Claire smiled at each other, and then moved closer together. He leaned down to kiss her. "You really do look beautiful, not that you didn't earlier."

"Thanks."

He smirked at her playfully.

She let it go on for a moment and then she quirked her brow and demanded, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Did you really show the women in that salon a half-naked picture of me?"

She laughed out loud. "It was the upper half!"

He laughed with her and pulled her into a hug. "I'm flattered, Baby."

She smirked. "Like you never showed anyone that picture of me!"

"Never!" he laughed.

She frowned, gasped, and slapped his chest. "Why not?"

He chuckled. "Because you corrupted my poor cat."

She giggled. "Do you still have it?"

"Hell yeah, I still have it."

"Can I see?"

"Sure."

He pulled the photo out of his wallet and handed it to her. She smiled at the memory it called up. She had been so disappointed that Leon wasn't home when she visited his condo, but they had each other's keys, and she called him to tell him she was letting herself in. He told her to make herself at home and to feed his cat. She chuckled and said Leon had left enough food and water to feed an army of cats, but she'd happily change the litter box and pet his little furry roommate whenever she wanted.

Leon's cat had taken immediately to Claire, following her around the house and waiting for her at the door whenever Claire went out. So when Claire decided to have Rebecca bring over her camera and take some racy shots for Leon, Honey refused to get off the bed. So, Claire made her a part of the picture.

In the final photo, Claire was sprawled out across the foot of Leon's bed, the covers all tossed on the floor, save for the lone white sheet that was draped low across Claire's hips. She had one arm straight out under the pillow she nestled her head upon, her long red locks spilling over one side of the pillow to pool on the mattress. Her other arm was draped across her bare breasts, just barely hiding the center of both from view. The smirk on her face was naughty and her makeup was natural. She looked like she'd just finished fucking him. Honey the cat was stretched out in front of Claire's groin. She was blocking the view of Claire's goods, which was why there was only one 'pussy' in the photo, as opposed to Jill's suggestion.

Claire chuckled and returned the picture to her lover, and he returned it to his wallet. He pulled her into his arms again. They just sat together holding each other. She caressed his hand as he caressed her abdomen through her sweater. Then all of a sudden, looked at her with a perplexed expression.

"What now?" she asked.

He smirked at her. "What's under this thing?"

She smiled seductively. "Why don't you take a look and find out?"

He lifted her sweater and then smiled. "Black leather tube top. Claire, you spoil me."

She took the sweater off and kissed him forcefully. He wasted no time in rubbing her breasts through the leather before breaking their kiss. He moved down to lick her collarbone, and then dragged the leather top down off her right breast. He teased her nipple with his tongue. She sighed and unzipped the side of the tube top. It fell away from her body, giving her boyfriend free access to both breasts. When her upper half was bared to him, he was shocked by what he saw. On Claire's left breast was a tattoo of his initials. There was an 'LSK' inked right over where Claire's heart would be.

"Baby?"

She smiled, blushing sweetly, a rarity for the badass TerraSave agent unless she was in the company of the man seated beside her. "I got it done after our last visit together, at your parents' house. I . . . I wanted you to know that I belong to you."

He smiled and kissed her gently. "I love you, Claire." He kissed the tattoo and then licked her nipples, mouthing them gently so she would shiver with delight for him. Then he sat up and kissed her, their tongues swirling around each other, as he lightly rubbed her nipples with his fingertips. She moaned into their kiss.

He pulled away from her and smiled. "Take your clothes off," he whispered.

She got up and obeyed immediately, only sitting down again when she was nude. She was a little cold, but she knew her lover would warm her up in no time.

Leon got down onto the ground. He rubbed her wetness a few times before tasting her deeply. She moaned quietly as he pleasured her. 'Six months,' she thought. 'We really can't keep being apart for this long.'

For the next five minutes, Leon licked her pussy, sucked her clit, and rubbed her opening. He was gentler than he'd ever been before. Clearly, he was about to make love to her. 'There will be no fucking tonight,' he thought. 'She deserves to know how much I love her. Besides, it's been way too long since she was under me.'

When she was trembling almost continuously, he stopped. He sat up and leaned forward to kiss her. While he did that, he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off. She helped him to remove the rest of his clothing. When they were both naked, he sat down on the sofa. She knelt beside him and bent over his lap to stroke him before putting him into her mouth.

He caressed her back and smoothed her hair off her face. When she worked her hand up and down his shaft then rubbed his sacque, he moaned and leaned over her back to get his hand between her legs. She sucked him a little harder and moaned a little louder as he fingered her while planting kisses up and down her spine.

When he couldn't take it anymore, he lifted her head gently away from his cock. He kissed her tenderly and then turned her onto her side. He settled himself behind her and entered her.

'Six months,' he thought with a sigh. 'The end of another drought.'

He kept his pace gentle. He kissed her cheek and nuzzled her throat. She extended her leg straight up into the air. He stopped supporting it to caress her from the tips of her toes down to her inner thigh, and then he slid his hand over to rub her clit, giving her more stimulation as he glided gently in and out of her.

"That's so nice, Leon," she whispered. She kissed him as gently as he had done to her. "You want me to get under you?"

He nodded. "On your back, Baby."

She complied. A moment later he was deep inside her again, pounding her hard while he held himself up on his fists, watching her breasts as they bounced.

It was too good. Claire gripped his arms and threw her left leg up over the top of the couch. He was driving her insane, grinding his hips, pushing it deep. She grabbed his ass, and she could feel the muscles contract and release every time he buried his cock inside her. She threw her head back and made a gasping sound before shrieking, "Oh, God!" into the night.

Leon and Claire made love on the sofa for the next five minutes, but when their moaning got a little louder, they were interrupted by another shouted commentary from Chris's bedroom window.

"Hey! Stop scaring my new neighbors with your naked perversion!"

Claire and Leon started to laugh. Claire yelled up at the window, "Mind your damn business!"

"Free porn shows on my back patio _are _my business! Especially when I haven't been given the option of charging admission!"

Leon laughed as he pulled out of Claire and rubbed her leg as he answered her brother. "Chris, does Jill know you're bugging us again?"

Claire smiled and reached out to caress his chest. "Yeah!" she yelled up to Chris. "Because I can tell her if you like!"

Jill's voice responded this time. "Yes, Jill knows! Now, bring your slutty asses inside before someone sees you and thinks you're us! Do it within the next minute, and I won't call the Arlington Police Department." Her next statement made Chris groan loudly in disgust. "It's your choice, Leon. You can spend the night in jail or in Claire. But you're not spending it naked on my new patio furniture!"

Leon stood up and stretched. "Only one clear course of action given _those _choices." He helped Claire to her feet, handed her their clothes, then threw her over his shoulder. He slapped both her ass cheeks and walked inside.

She frowned and shouted. "I swear to God, Leon! If you keep throwing me over your shoulder, you're gonna wear my puke!"

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Chris and Jill were lying in bed together, trying to fall asleep, but having trouble doing so because of the cacophony of the headboard of Jill's old bed rhythmically banging against a wall down the hallway.

"It's about fucking time," Jill mumbled against Chris's chest as she turned the television volume up again. "I thought those two would never admit they were in love."

Chris sighed. "Babe . . . do you have an ice pick I can use to gouge out my ear drums? I mean, I'm all for them being together, but I didn't ask for a private performance."

Jill laughed her ass off. "Claire's right, Honey. This is what you get for being so goddamn nosy about her sex life."

* * *

**Author's Notes (cont'd): **Just the epilogue left, now! Thanks for hanging in there with me! ~ T.


	9. Epilogue: Moving On

**Leon? A Word, Please?**

**Author: **Tani2

**Genre: **Romance

**Rating:** M for explicit sexual content, mature themes, violence, and language. You have been warned.

**Timeline: **Six months after the conclusion of the events of RE5 with flashbacks in italics

**Synopsis: **Leon and Claire help Chris and Jill move into their new home. Bothered by how his sister interacts with her best friend, Chris decides it's time to have a man-to-man. What he learns is more than he bargained for. Pairings are Leon/Claire and Chris/Jill

**Disclaimer: **I do not own_ Resident Evil _or any of the characters in this story, nor did I profit from their use in this work of fiction. My purpose is one of philosophical fulfillment: I write, therefore, I am.

**Author's Notes: **It's the last chapter, folks. Thanks so much to everyone who read, everyone who reviewed, whether good or bad. Hope you all enjoyed the story, but even if you didn't, I appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to read. Take it easy!

~ Tani

* * *

**Epilogue: Moving On**

_**Arlington, Virginia: a large suburban house with a moving truck in front**_

Claire emptied the last of the boxes out of the back of the moving truck. She stacked them next to the bookcases in the den. She opened each box and took out the books inside. Once they were all on the shelves, she sighed and stood up. 'Well, I guess we can rest for a few more hours,' she pondered to herself. 'But then we need to go get the next truck load from Chris's condo."

She picked up the empty boxes and went into the kitchen. She opened the cellar door and dropped the boxes downstairs. They landed on the pile of empty boxes that was already blocking the stairs. Chris had promised to collapse and recycle all the boxes himself in exchange for the other three having set up his mancave.

Claire smirked and walked through the living room and through Jill's sitting room. She opened the door that led to the sunken room that now housed Chris's homage to testosterone. She peaked inside. The mancave had a brown leather sofa, two leather recliners, a bar and pool table that came with the house, a foozball table, and the biggest flat screen TV Claire had ever seen, already equipped with an Xbox, a Wii, a PSP2, and a Blu-ray player. In addition, the sign Chris still had from Fucking, Austria was leaning against the coffee-table, waiting for Chris to mount it on the wall beside the pool table. The other sign hung in Leon's condo in Georgetown, right over his beer pong table.

But it wasn't the accoutrements of the mancave that Claire was interested in. She was more interested in the man lying on the sofa.

Leon was fast asleep. When the couple had awoken in the morning, he had made a valiant effort to help her unpack the last of the truck's contents, but he was so hungover and nauseous from drinking so much on an empty stomach the night before, he just couldn't manage it. Claire had encouraged him to take some medication and go back to bed, but he'd decided to take a nap on the comfortable couch in the mancave instead.

She turned back to face Leon. He was resting peacefully. She decided to let him sleep a while longer. Claire walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Jill's books had gotten dusty in storage, and now she was dusty, too. She figured a shower and change of clothes were in order. She'd check on Leon after that.

* * *

An hour later, Claire walked into the masculine entertainment lounge wearing a white tube top sweater which was half of a twinset she'd packed. It was fairly warm for September, so she didn't wear the matching cardigan. She also wore a little light gray miniskirt that was scandalous in its length.

She smiled at the still sleeping form of her boyfriend. He hadn't moved much in her absence, except that his shirt was suddenly nowhere to be found. When she last looked into the room, he'd been wearing a white polo shirt over a gray pair of long cargo shorts. She'd put on the outfit she was wearing as a gag so she could point out how they were turning into a matchy-match couple. Now, he just wore the shorts. She smirked and shook her head as she closed the door quietly. 'He even ruins my jokes in his sleep,' she thought.

She walked softly on bare tiptoes over to the sofa. She knelt onto the floor and adjusted her mini skirt so her white lace thong wasn't visible. She watched him sleep for a while, stroking his hair from in front of his left eye. She bent and kissed him gently. He frowned and stirred awake. When his vision focused, he smiled at her.

"Hi, Baby."

She smiled and kissed him again. "Have a nice nap?"

He nodded and stretched. "Yup. Needed it after the workout you gave me last night."

She rolled her eyes and continued to stroke his hair. "Headache and nausea gone?"

He smiled and closed his eyes. "Yeah. Thanks for the ibuprofen and Alka-Seltzer . . . and the scalp massage. That feels very good."

She kissed his forehead. "You're very welcome."

He caressed her back for a while as she continued to run her fingers gently through his hair. "Remind me never to drink with your brother again," he commented absently. "The man isn't human."

She smirked. "Well, I would, except that's what you said the last time you drank with him . . . and the time before that. I don't know why you keep trying to out-drink him, Leon. Chris can drink you under the table. It's a Redfield thing."

He winced playfully. "Ouch, Baby. That wounds me," he replied sarcastically. "Especially coming from someone who once got so drunk that she thought the phrase 'I love you' was synonymous with the phrase 'you smell nice'." She gave a phony little laugh and held up her middle finger at him. He chuckled and snatched her hand, placing a kiss on the back.

She smiled, rolled her eyes, and stood up. She tried to leave, but he grabbed her hand again and pulled her back down onto his lap on the couch.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you really need to ask me that question at this point in our relationship?"

She grinned. "I guess not." She straddled his hips and leaned down to kiss him. She ran her fingers over his bare torso. She quirked her brow at him. "Leon . . . where the hell is your shirt?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I was hot." He cocked his thumb over his shoulder. "I think I threw it that way." He smirked and pulled the holder off her ponytail, freeing her locks for him to play with. "Why? Does my nudity offend?"

She smiled and took the holder from him, placing it on her wrist as opposed to letting him throw it across the room, as he was so clearly planning to do. She caressed his chest before planting kisses across it. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feelings, as well as hiding his poor retinas from the treacherous sun.

He sighed and ran a hand down her back to squeeze her backside. She smiled against his chest and moved to kiss his lips again. "It's fine," she finally answered. I like you without a shirt."

He chuckled and reached up the bottom of her tube top to toy with her nipples. "I like you without a shirt, too." When he found her to be without a bra, he leaned up to receive her kiss. "You look so goddamn sexy right now," he said softly.

"Thank you," she whispered against his lips. "I wore this for you." She looked down at his body and her eyelids grew heavy. He was hard and ready for her, his rigid length straining at the material of his fly.

"God, Leon. You sure know how to fill out a pair of cargo shorts."

He sat up and pulled her tightly against his chest. Her breasts squished against the solid muscles of his pectorals. He looked down at her cleavage and smiled. "You sure know how to fill out a tube top." He kissed her neck and shoulder. He ran his index fingertip along the upper edge of her strapless top. "Take it off," he ordered.

She smirked and shook her head. "Sorry. You gotta earn that." She got up off his lap and wandered over to the bar area. She sat on one of the stools and crossed her legs. She smiled a naughty little smirk at Leon and beckoned him with her finger.

He grinned and got up from the sofa. He followed her to the bar and leaned down to kiss her. When they parted this time, he smiled into her eyes and said, "I should lock the door before this goes any further."

She shook her head. "No need. Chris and Jill are still in bed."

He smirked. "Lazy fuckers."

"You should talk." He chuckled. "Anyway, you're only half right. I never said they were sleeping, I just said they were in bed. Listen."

They were both quiet for a moment and then they started to laugh. They could hear the rhythmic sounds of something heavy bouncing on bedsprings. Leon kissed Claire's earlobe and whispered, "Either the future Mr. and Mrs. Redfield are jumping on the bed or they're doing to each other what I'm about to do to you." He extended his index finger and tickled her left nipple through her shirt.

Claire giggled and slapped his hand away. "Quit it!"

He smiled and kissed her throat, her cheek, and finally, her lips again. She sighed against his mouth as he slowly lifted her tube top. When her breasts sprang free, Leon cupped and lifted them, just marveling at their form for a while.

"Your body is so beautiful, Claire." He bent and kissed the tattooed evidence of her love for him, licked her left nipple, and then sucked her right. She closed her eyes and ran her hands through his hair. When he stood up to kiss her again, she wrapped her arms around his neck and swirled her tongue around his. They kissed gently for a while, enjoying the knowledge that the person they were kissing loved them.

Leon leaned back and stared down at his girlfriend's body. He smirked. "That's a pretty fucking short skirt, Baby. If it were any shorter, it would be a belt."

She laughed. "What? You don't like it?"

He shook his head. "Quite the contrary." He caressed her legs then pushed them far apart. "It certainly makes for easy access." He didn't even have to lift her skirt to get to her panties. The position she was in lifted the skirt to her waist. He pulled the crotch of her thong to one side and rubbed her sex gently. She sighed and pushed his hand away, smirking teasingly at him. He chuckled and moved his hands to her breasts and kneaded them slowly. This time she didn't try to tease him. He decided to reward her for playing along. He helped her to her feet and squeezed her ass with two hands.

She leaned her cheek against his chest and caressed his back with both hands. He leaned over her and lifted her skirt. He filled his hands with her rear end again. He lifted her cheeks and squeezed them. "So nice," he whispered. He slid one hand further under her and rubbed her sex. "Can I take your panties off?" he asked seductively. She nodded. He took both sides of her thong and slid them down her hips. When the garment reached her mid thighs, Leon let go. The thong fell to the carpet. Leon kissed her and caressed her backside, but Claire reached back and pushed his hands aside then pulled her skirt back down to hide her nudity. He chuckled against her lips. He loved it when she teased him. He decided to tease her back this time.

He lifted her off her feet and plunked her down on the bar. He bent down and caressed her clit gently with his lips. He exhaled against her sex. She giggled at the tickling sensation and stroked his hair away from his handsome face so she could see him better.

"Tease," she whispered.

"Back at ya, Baby," he replied quietly before running the tip of his tongue over her wet slit. She cried out and tossed her head back while gripping his. She tried to drag his face closer to her groin, but he resisted, opting for keeping his stimulation gentle and fleeting.

"You're driving me crazy!" she muttered. "Please, Leon! I need more!" He smiled against her pussy and kissed it lovingly, but he denied her the 'more' she was looking for . . . at least for the time being.

Claire continued to try to force Leon into giving her more forceful oral pleasure, and Leon continued to resist. He only teased her for a short while, though. It wasn't really in his makeup to deny his beloved Claire anything she wanted for more than a few moments. He drove his tongue deep inside her while teasing her clit with his fingertips. She cried out again and pulled at his hair. He loved every second of the painful pleasure, but he knew she'd yank it out at the roots if he let her continue. Reluctantly, Leon stopped licking her pussy and extricated her fingers from their grip on his straight fringe of hair.

He pulled her shirt and skirt back into place before lifting her off the bar and walking her back over to the couch. When he placed her on her feet, she opened his cargo shorts and pushed them down his hips. They hit the floor and he stepped out of them. She looked down at him in his white boxer-briefs, and shivered at the large tent that his cock made as it distended the cotton, straining it to its limit. 'He's so goddamn big,' she thought, licking her lips.

He lifted Claire off her feet again and backed up, dropping back onto the sofa. He pulled her legs up onto the sofa as he sat, and Claire placed her knees on either side of him. She smiled down at him and he smirked up at her. He pushed his hands up the back of her shirt, lifting it as he slowly caressed her skin.

"You look so beautiful today, Baby. I love when you wear sleeveless tops."

"Like last night?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Like last night, you in that black leather tube top . . . no wonder I needed a nap today."

She fingered the hair at his nape and then smoothed his brows before planting a kiss between them. "Thanks for the complement," she breathed against his face.

She leaned back and looked into his eyes. He smiled. His expression was playful, but his lids were heavy with passion.

She sighed blissfully as his large hands continued to work magic on her back. She leaned down to kiss his lips this time. When she leaned away from him again, his expression was no longer playful. He leaned forward and buried his face against her neck.

"I love you so much, Claire," he muttered into her silken hair.

She bit her bottom lip and blinked back tears. She never realized how important it was to her to hear him say that again until he actually did. It must have been just as important for him to hear it from her . . . and she had made him wait ten years.

"I . . . I love you, too." She leaned back and smiled at him, but she couldn't blink back the stray tears that fell from each of her eyes.

He caressed her hair back behind each ear and wiped the moisture from both of her cheeks. "Don't cry, Baby."

She sniffled back the rest of her tears. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice a little shaky. "I just feel so awful for not telling you that I love you . . . for making you think that I loved someone else."

He slid his hands up the back of her top again. "Shhh. It doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is that I know it now."

"But, I . . . ."

He smiled and shook his head as he cut her off. "No, Claire. No 'buts'. You made me the happiest man in the world last night. I don't care how long it took you to tell me, not anymore. It never kept you from being mine since Harvardville. And now that I do know, none of the old drama between us matters to me anymore. We had a rough past, but we have a beautiful future ahead of us."

She smiled softly and caressed his chest. "Leon . . . ."

He didn't let her finish. He sat forward and used his hold on her back to pull her down into a passionate kiss. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, running her fingers through his hair as he plumbed her mouth with his tongue. Leon rubbed her back all the way up and down, pulling her shirt up and down as well. The shirt's movements teased her nipples, puckering them to little peaks.

She stroked her hands lovingly through his hair while slowly moving her hips back and forth to offer him stimulation. She felt him getting harder against her crotch, and he sighed as her wet heat gradually soaked through his white boxer briefs.

He kissed his way down onto her throat while slowly lifting her tube top with his hands still under the little sweater. He slid his hands around to her front, still lifting the shirt until her breasts were exposed. He lowered his face to her right breast and licked a slow wet circle around her areola. She shivered through the light caress of his tongue and then pressed her pussy hard against his cock as he mouthed her nipple with a small pool of saliva in his mouth.

He moved to the other nipple, sucking it gently while rubbing her right nipple with one hand and kneading her ass with the other. Still suckling her nipple, he pulled the sleeveless sweater up and over her head, and then tossed it in the direction he'd thrown his shirt earlier.

She leaned her head on top of his and then threw her head back when he started to suck her nipple harder. Once he released her breast from his mouth, he brought his hands forward from caressing her bare back to knead both her breasts again while he kissed her pulse point. She gripped his hair. He grunted against her throat as she was hurting him this time. He decided it was in his best interest not to over-stimulate his sweetheart, so he moved his hands down off her breasts and around to slide up her skirt. Her bare ass cheeks filled his palms, and he both kneaded her muscular rounded flesh and used his hold on her to pull her tighter against his crotch. In the meantime, he continued to go back and forth between her breasts, licking, suckling, and grazing her nipples with his teeth.

When her body began to tremble, he leaned back from her chest and looked down as he began to untie the drawstring at the waist of her skirt. She lifted up to her knees, which allowed him to start dragging her skirt down her hips. He leaned down and sucked on her left nipple again. She moaned and moved to her back on the sofa. He pulled her skirt off, leaving her completely naked. He took in the sight of her wanting and needy before him, and slowly leaned down to kiss her throat and suck each of her nipples. He rolled her into a bridal carry then sat her down properly in the center of the couch with her back to the sofa seat back.

Claire threaded her fingers into Leon's hair as he bent to kiss her lips. He slowly moved to his knees on the floor in front of her, still kissing her as he knelt. Once he was on his knees, he pushed her legs apart so that they were on either side of his torso. She scooted forward and he wrapped his arms securely around her. Her tiny fingers slid down from his scalp onto his shoulders, and she held him just as tightly while their kiss ended. They just held each other for a while, hugging and sighing against each other's skin, enjoying the feeling of just being so in love.

Suddenly, Leon turned his head toward her and began kissing her neck. He brought one hand out from under her, bracing himself with his other palm planted into the couch cushion beneath her, and used his now free hand to knead her right breast again.

Claire slid her hands up and down his back, making him shiver whenever her fingertips feathered up and down his spine. She finally slid both hands down to his ass and gave it a firm squeeze.

"You have the most perfect ass ever, Leon," she whispered while looking over his shoulder and down his back at his firm backside in his tight boxer-briefs.

He lifted his head to stare into her eyes for just a moment before he kissed and licked her breasts in gratitude of the compliment. He then moved slowly down her body, kissing her breasts and abdomen repeatedly as he worked his way down. He pushed the coffee-table back with his left foot. The Fucking road sign fell flat on the carpeted floor. They barely noticed the sound.

He kissed her inner thighs in turn, and then licked her clit hard. She tossed her head back and sighed. He lifted her legs and pushed them back toward her ears as he continued to lick her sex.

"Ohhhhhh, yeah." She hissed and licked her lips, then her eyes fluttered closed as she gave herself over to his pleasure.

He sighed and pushed her legs a little further apart before delving his tongue into her heat. He moved his hands to her breasts, slowly rolling her nipples between his fingers. She stroked his hair and shivered. She brought her legs together and planted her feet on his shoulder blades, caressing his upper back with her toes. He moved his hands off her breasts and grabbed her legs under the knees, pushing them fairly wide apart again. Once he felt that she was relaxed, he released her legs and slowly eased his underwear down his hips and legs, lifting one knee at a time so he could remove them without getting up from feasting on Claire's body. When they were at his ankles, he pulled them off his feet. They were finally both naked.

He got to his feet and kissed her nipples. He lifted her by her ass and then moved her more fully to her back, which put her legs further up into the air and lifted her pussy so that he had easier access without neck strain. He put his hands under her knees again as his mouth descended back onto her sex. A moment later, he pushed her legs all the way back until her shins rested on the back of the couch and her calves lay on either side of her head. 'Goddamn! I love that she's so flexible!' he thought.

She squirmed in ecstasy as he teased her slit with his tongue. "Oh, God!" she cried out suddenly before making a sound that was half-moaning, half-choking. When he moved his hands back to her breasts, she started to pant with her need. For the next several seconds, he relished in her moans, every breathy sigh, every shiver. Then he slowly rose to his feet, still hunched over her body, and kissed her lips. She sighed and caressed his neck as he shared the taste of her essence with her. After a moment of tender kissing, Leon got back down on his knees, and began licking her clit while thrusting two fingers rapidly inside her.

"Oooooo!" she moaned.

"Ohhhh, Claire," he breathed against her clit, causing her to shiver. He leaned back and watched his fingers thrusting in and out of her. He could see his cock in his peripheral vision, standing rock hard at full attention, just waiting for its turn to take the place of his fingers.

He slowed the movement of his hand. He was getting them both too excited too fast. He withdrew his fingers from her heat and slowly rubbed them up and down her weeping slit. Then he took her hand and laid it gently over her own pussy. She slowly rubbed her fingertips in little circles over her clit. He teased her opening with a fingertip, and then bent to taste her again. While his tongue kissed her sex, she kept rubbing her clit until she couldn't stand it anymore and fisted her hands in his hair again. That was Leon's cue that she was more than ready for him to make love to her.

He stood up again and turned her sideways so she was lying on her back. He started to kneel between her legs, but she shook her head no. "Not yet. Sixty-nine, first."

It seemed he was wrong. She wanted more foreplay. He nodded and moved instead to hover over her body in the opposite direction, his face hanging over her sex as he pushed both her legs against the back of the couch to give himself room. His one foot remained on the floor while his other leg rested on the armrest behind her head, so that his cock dangled above her face without him feeling like he was smothering her with his looming, greater size. She reached up and grabbed his shaft, stroking it a few times before lifting her head to put her mouth on his cock. He shivered and immediately thrust his tongue back inside her while using both hands to spread her pussy open. She shrieked when he tongued her clit, now fully exposed from its little hood. He groaned and moved his hips slowly up and down, gently fucking her mouth in time with the swirl of his tongue on her clit.

They both panted and gasped as they shared oral pleasure for the next few minutes. When he sucked hard on the little nubbin at the junction of her sex, she moaned around him and leaned up to deep throat his length. She gagged and coughed, drooling on his cock, and wrenching a shout of surprised passion from her lover. He went back to just tongue fucking her pussy, not wanting to challenge her again to a sensual dual. He'd never last if she did that again. The only thing he still did to drive her crazy was to rub her anus with his middle fingertip. She shuddered almost continuously as he teased her with the promise of anal pleasure. What he didn't realize was the effect that prospect would have on him, too. He groaned and moved to kiss both of her ass cheeks, then drove his tongue almost violently inside her before clamping his lips onto her clit as he sucked it hard.

"MMMMMM!" she moaned loudly around his cock, kicking her legs in surprise at the sensual onslaught.

"Mmm hmm," he moaned in reply, not letting up one bit, even when she ran her tongue up the sensitive underside of his cock. But when she grazed his glans with her teeth, he stopped abruptly and got shakily to his feet. "Okay, you win," he muttered before moving to kneel between her legs, still with his right foot on the floor while the other knee stabilized him on the couch. He pushed her thighs back towards her head where she gripped them and held them in place. Folded in half as she was, her glistening pussy was lifted up and open for him. He shivered a bit in anticipation of being inside her.

He stroked his cock, leaned over his Claire, and slowly pushed it inside her. She sighed and whimpered his name. He leaned back and pulled her legs to his shoulders, leaned down to kiss her, then slowly moved his hips up and down, penetrating her more and more on each subsequent thrust until he was fully trapped deep in her heat. She trembled and shed a few tears once he was all the way inside her.

He slowly brought his foot off the floor and planted it in the couch cushion beside her left hip. He continued to kiss her as he began to lift his hips up and down, pulling almost all the way out of her every time before sinking all the way back inside her. When the kisses became salty, he leaned back and froze. She was crying, her eyes closed in a look that he thought could only be construed as painful.

He stared down at her in concern and confusion. He stroked his hand across her face to draw her attention. She opened her eyes and stared up at him.

"What's the matter, Baby? Why are you crying?"

She gave him a brave little smile. "It's nothing."

"No it's not." He caressed her face again and kissed her gently. "Am I hurting you, Sweetheart?"

She sighed against his lips and smiled. When he moved back and could see her face, she shook her head 'no'. "No, you're not hurting me. You feel wonderful."

He was starting to look a little distraught. "Then why are you crying?"

She shook her head. "You'll think I'm silly."

He sighed and shook his head. "Claire, right now, I think I'm hurting you. I'd welcome just thinking you're silly. Now, please tell me what's wrong. You're scaring me."

She ran both hands into his hair, then pulled him down into a kiss. When they parted, she whispered across his lips. "It's not pain on my face, Sweetie. I promise. It's just the way you just entered me . . . how it was so slow and gentle, and how you pushed it inside me so gradually . . . it reminded me of our first time. It was the first time that I knew I loved you, the moment you were first inside me, taking such care not to hurt me, trying so hard to make me forget how scared I was, reassuring me without even speaking that if it was in your power, I would survive that night. We've had so many ups and downs over the years, Leon. I've never stopped loving you, please understand that, but I also never thought I would feel that feeling again . . . to feel your love through the care you took to initiate making love to me." She sighed and wiped the fresh tears that slid out of the corners of her eyes. "I'm just a little overwhelmed with remembering why I fell in love with you in the first place, that's all."

He listened to her honest admission of love in silence. He never knew that the care he took that first night had meant this much to her. His heart raced as he felt a rush of emotion and pride in having made the only woman he ever loved so happy. He leaned down and kissed her tear-stained cheeks, then pressed his lips to hers. When they parted, Claire sighed and caressed his neck and chest while clenching her inner muscles around him. He took the hint and started to slowly lift his hips before lowering them again to thrust into her slow and deep. He thrust a few times and then stopped. He kissed her again, still feeling the ache in his heart from the depths of his love for Claire. He moved to the balls of his feet while lifting her torso with one hand and balancing with the other. He pressed her to his chest, still kissing her gently, and then he lowered her back to the couch cushions. He placed both hands on either side of her before thrusting his cock a little faster. When she moaned and clenched around him, he moaned in reply and moved his hips faster still, making sure to thrust it deep every time.

She ran the fingers of her right hand through his hair while teasing her clit with her left. "Oh, Baby!" she whispered. "Oh! Oh! Ohhhh! Yes, Leon! Yes! Oh, yes! Ohhhh! It feels so good! Don't stop! Don't stop!"

Fueled by her whispered moans, he leaned back and lifted her legs to his torso, then started teasing her toes with his tongue. She giggled and sighed, the clench of her sex causing her lover to shiver. He rubbed her feet, kissed her soles in turn, and then spread her legs apart. He moved his right foot back down onto the floor, and planted his other foot on the couch. With his new leverage, assisted by his height, he lifted his torso straight up on his arms, lifted his hips, and then slammed his cock deep into Claire.

"Motherfucker!" she shouted. He loved making her scream obscenities. It was such a turn on. He tried to wrench another curse from her mouth by grinding his cock deep inside her. She curled her toes, tossed her head back, and moaned. "Oh, God!" she gritted out from between clenched teeth. "Fuck me, Leon! Fuck me! Oh, fuck . . . it feels so fucking good! So good! So good! So good! Oh . . . . _God!_"

"Ohhhh!" he groaned as she had her first orgasm of the day as his gentle grinding tortured her clit and G spot into euphoria.

When Claire's body stopped trembling with release, Leon pushed her legs down and braced himself with his hands on the backs of her thighs. Once again, he slowly lifted his hips, but this time, he moaned loudly as he drove his cock home.

"Ahhh!" she cried out. "Hard! Fuck me hard!"

He cried out before doing as she told him, still keeping his pace slow as he increased the force of his thrusts.

He moaned with every other penetration, losing his breath on the others. About five minutes later, he suddenly stopped moving. He shivered uncontrollably with the effort not to cum. Once he got himself under control, he decided to let her take over for a while. He pulled her up to his lap and wrapped her in his arms. They kissed for a while, and then Leon laid back on the opposite end of the sofa, leaving Claire straddling his lap, still with his cock buried deep inside her. He ran his fingers through her long red hair, then pushed it back behind her ears so he could still see her face.

Claire placed her hand on Leon's chest and then moved her hips, gliding easily up and down his cock from the abundance of her juices that was slicking their union. Her breasts bounced up and down as she moved. The sight caused Leon to throw his head back and moan. He then leaned forward to watch her fuck him at the place they were joined, but pretty soon, the sensual sight overwhelmed him and he had to close his eyes and let his head drop back onto the couch cushions.

Seeing the effect she was having on him, Claire slowed the movement of her hips and began to grind slowly on him as he'd done to her. He threaded his fingers into her hair and held it back from her face. She leaned down to kiss him, never slowing her hips, and then when she leaned back, she began bouncing up and down again, but with less force so as not to make him cum yet.

Claire rode her man for a good ten minutes without any problem, but when his cock started feeling a little too good inside her, she began to cry out with the beginnings of another orgasm and her movements became uncoordinated. Leon, who had been lying back with his eyes closed and his hands on her ass, slowly opened his eyes and looked up at her face. It was contorted in passion. He dug his fingers into her ass and pulled her forward hard until her pelvic bone slammed into his. She cried out even louder. He did it again and she screamed. He kept doing it, relishing in the sounds she made as he brought her to another orgasm. She got to her feet and began fucking him again immediately. He cried out this time, and grabbed her breasts, kneading them and pinching her nipples until they were almost sore. He planted his feet in the couch behind her and began raising his hips to meet her thrusts. They moaned and groaned incoherently to each other as they grounded their way to yet another orgasm for Claire. At the feel of her pussy erratically clenching him again, Leon's penis twitched and spurted a bit of pre-cum.

"Ohhh! Babe, that felt so good!" he cried out.

They stopped moving their hips for a moment, opting to kiss instead to give Leon a chance to recover. After a minute, Claire started to bounce on his cock again, but Leon abruptly lifted her up off him, yet again making the effort not to release.

"Fuck, Baby!" he panted out a chuckle. "You feel way too good."

He stood up and pulled her up around his torso, holding her suspended in mid air. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He reached down and placed his length halfway inside her, then lifted her up and down. She raised her legs up onto his shoulders. He gradually increased the speed that he made her move until her legs fell to his sides, her head dropped back limply, and her breathing came out in gasps from between her parted lips while he slammed her forward onto his cock. For his part, Leon was temporarily mesmerized by the sight of her breasts jerking rhythmically for him.

Eventually the strength in his legs gave out. He dropped back onto the sofa, with her legs on either side of him again, just as he had when they first sat down. He grinned up at her, panting slightly from all the exertion. "You're wearing me out, Claire."

She caressed his neck and kissed him. "Want to do it from the back?"

He smiled. "Sure."

He leaned forward and dragged her closer, impaling her fully on his length as they kissed each other passionately. He leaned back to look up at her again, always a slave to her beauty in the act of sex. She caressed his scalp then ran the backs of her fingers down his cheek. He leaned up to kiss her again then stood and turned around to place her on her back, bent kind of awkwardly with her head resting against the back of the couch.

"Hey! I said from the back! Are you disobeying a direct order, soldier?"

"And what if I am?"

"I'll make you drop and give me twenty!"

He chuckled. "Yes, ma'am!" Leon lifted her legs back towards her head then pressed his hands onto her thighs, once again folding her in half. He kept his arms extended and his legs out straight behind him. Claire giggled and stroked his cock before placing it against her pussy, anticipating what he meant to do. He didn't disappoint her. Leon immediately started counting out loud as he did a very perverted variation on push-ups. Every time he leaned down, he withdrew almost completely, and every time he leaned up, he penetrated her fully. Claire giggled the entire time, and when he reached twenty, she reached around him and slapped his ass.

"Always such a smartass."

He smirked and leaned down to kiss her before lifting her to her feet. She sighed and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. He turned her around and pushed her down so that she was kneeling with her back to him and her face pressed against the wall behind Chris's couch. He bent down and knelt behind her, stroked his cock up and down her slit, then pushed it inside. He fucked her that way for a few minutes until Claire sighed and turned to face him. "Stop teasing," she whispered.

He looked surprised. "How am I teasing you?"

"I asked you to fuck me from behind."

"That's what I'm doing."

"No, you're fucking me doggy style. I want you to go in through the backdoor."

His eyes widened and then he pulled out. He stood to his full height and Claire turned around to sit with her legs crossed Indian-style. Suddenly, Leon smiled and darted for the door.

She giggled. "Where are you going?"

"To get the lube!"

"You're naked! Chris will see you!"

"Chris is still fucking Jill."

She listened . . . . And then she laughed. Leon was right. "Well, hurry back!"

"No worries!" he shouted back through the open door. She heard his heavy footfalls race up the stairs and then down the hall to their room. At the same time, she also heard the bedsprings abruptly stop creaking in the bedroom above her head. She fell over on the couch, giggling.

About one minute later, Leon barreled back into the man-cave with a bottle of lubricant in his hand. The creaking above their heads resumed a few seconds later. Claire was still giggling hysterically.

"What?" he demanded with a big 'innocent' grin on his face.

"I can't believe you just ran through my brother's house bare-assed!" she laughed.

"Yeah, I know, right? Did you hear them get all quiet when they heard me come upstairs?"

"Sure did. They must have heard your big feet on the st-. . . ." She stopped short when she noticed his penis didn't look the same as when he left. "You have a condom on _already?_"

He looked down and smiled. "Yeah."

"You were only gone for like half a minute!"

"I put it on while running down the stairs."

She laughed even harder. "That's so disgusting!" she finally gasped.

Leon chuckled as he opened the bottle and poured a generous amount of lubricant onto his hand. He stroked his cock and then fingered her ass, being cautious not to get the greasy stuff on the couch or carpet.

Claire's giggling slowed down as he stimulated her most forbidden entry then her laughter transformed into moans. Leon turned her to lie lengthwise on the couch again and knelt in front of her as he had earlier. Only this time, he lifted her hips a little higher. He angled his cock at her tighter orifice, took a deep breath, and pushed.

They both cried out in pleasure with the initial penetration, but it was Leon who kept moaning as he pounded her ass. Claire was too overwhelmed by pleasure to make another sound.

Feeling his release coming fast, Leon pulled out suddenly and backed away from his girlfriend. "Shit!" he exclaimed. "Why do you always feel too good, Baby? Give me a minute."

She nodded, panting too hard to answer verbally.

After a couple minutes of just sitting there trying to calm his body, Leon finally stood to his feet in front of the couch. He turned Claire so her back was to the seat of the couch again, and then folded her in half. He positioned himself to do his perverted push-ups again, but this time, Claire placed his cock at her anus.

When Leon pushed himself deep inside her this time, they both went into fits of trembling. "Too much," they said almost in unison. Leon withdrew and Claire dropped to her knees on the carpet. When her body stopped shaking, she turned and got to her knees, leaning forward over the cushions of the sofa. Leon stood above her, stroking his cock with more lube as he positioned it at her rear. She took her hair band off her wrist and put her hair back into a ponytail. He smirked and shook his head. She was teasing him again by putting her hair up, knowing how much he liked it down.

He was more careful this time as he lowered his hips slowly, penetrating her only a little at first. When she sighed and moaned a quiet little, "Mmmm," he was sure that he hadn't caused her any discomfort. With a sigh of relief, he made love to her. As long as he only penetrated her about halfway, she seemed content.

"You alright, Claire?"

"Mm hm," she mumbled quietly into her arm.

He smiled a little. She had the most blissful look on her face. She had a soft little smile and her eyes were closed. She had the same expression the last time he gave her a back rub at his parents' house. "Feels good?"

"Uh huh."

He chuckled. "Feels _really _good?"

She grinned. "Fishing for compliments?"

He laughed again. "No. Just want reassurance that I'm not hurting you this time."

"No. You're not. It just feels really nice."

"Want it a little harder and deeper?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm just about at the limit of what I can tolerate of you."

"Gee, thanks."

She giggled. "Sorry. That didn't come out right. I meant . . ."

"I know what you meant. I was only teasing."

"Okay." She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. "It's not just how long you are, it's how thick you are. I feel stretched open, but there's this amazing feeling of stimulation that goes along with it."

He nodded. "Okay."

She smirked. "Disappointed you can't slam that telephone pole of yours up my ass?"

He stopped moving his hips and cracked up. When he caught his breath, he answered, "Not at all! As long as you feel good, I'm happy."

"Then you should be _very _happy." He smiled at her and she closed her eyes again. After another minute, she opened her eyes and looked back at him again. "Does it feel good to _you_, Leon?"

"Yeah."

"You sure?"

He chuckled. "I'm sure."

"You don't have to move so slowly. I can take it faster."

He caressed her backside. "You said you were at your limit."

"Yeah, for force and depth, not speed."

"Oh. Well, in that case . . . ."

He pulled out and moved her to lie lengthwise on the couch again, only this time he placed her flat on her stomach. He straddled her thighs, keeping one foot on the floor and one knee on the couch. He used both hands to spread her cheeks, positioned himself and slowly penetrated her again. He slowly got back to the same depth as before and then started moving his hips more quickly, still keeping his thrusts shallow.

"Ooooooo," she moaned.

"Ohhh," he whispered.

As Leon moved faster and faster inside her, Claire's moaning got louder and louder. When she bit her bottom lip and mumbled. "Mmmmm, my God!" Leon had nearly reached his own limit.

"That feels so nice, Baby. You're so beautiful when you're this aroused." He reached under her and gently massaged her left breast. She reached back and caressed his abdomen.

He ran his hand gently up and down her side, up onto her breast, and back down onto her rear. She shivered with the added stimulation. She could just reach his legs with her fingers, so she caressed his lower thighs.

"Oh, my God!" he suddenly exclaimed and pulled out abruptly. He sat back on the other end of the couch.

She turned her head to face him. "_You_ okay?" she asked with a little smirk.

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah, just almost came."

She giggled. "So, why didn't you just let it happen?"

"Because you weren't close."

She grinned. "Aww. So considerate."

He smiled. "Always." He moved forward to caress both her ass cheeks. He kissed both and then turned her onto her back. He pulled the condom off. "Can we go back to regular sex?"

She nodded. "Of course."

He put the condom into a cocktail napkin he got off the bar, and then threw it away in the wastebasket by the pool table. When he got back to the couch, Claire sat up and pulled him into a kiss. He moved her to her back again. She gasped against his lips as he slowly pushed inside her sex.

Desperate to find release, they thrust against each other hard and fast. Within less than five minutes, they were both so close.

"Oh, Leon!"

"God!"

"Oh my God, it feels so fucking good!"

He groaned. "Claire!" he gritted out. "I'm cumming!" She couldn't even speak. She just gasped a few times, stiffened, and trembled. At the feel of her clenching around him, Leon dropped his head back on his shoulders and shouted in elation, "FUCKING . . . AUSTRIA!"

After a powerful orgasm of his own, he fell over on top of her. She was laughing hysterically as she wrapped her arms around his back and kissed his head. When she caught her breath, she sighed and called him a dumbass.

He closed her eyes, his panted breaths wafting through the few little wisps of hair that _weren't _clinging wetly to her sweaty neck. Once he caught his breath, he sighed and kissed her pulse point.

"I love you, Claire."

She smiled and helped him to move to his side behind her. She spooned against him and answered in kind.

"I love you too, Stretch."

He smiled and closed his eyes again. "Nap time?"

She chuckled. "Definitely." She reached over the arm of the couch and grabbed the afghan that was draped on an ottoman in front of one of the recliners. She covered them both with it and closed her eyes. Within minutes, both lovers were asleep.

* * *

Two hours into their nap, Leon and Claire's idyllic encounter was interrupted by the owner of the mancave.

Chris had woken up from his own post-coital slumber, showered, dressed, and wandered downstairs to watch his first action film on his new television before they all had to go get the next load of furniture.

When he walked into the only room in the house that actually got him emotional, he expressed a completely different emotion than he'd ever expected to feel in his manly domain.

Anger.

"OH, MY _GOD!_ MY COUCH! WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU TWO PERVERTS DONE TO MY BEAUTIFUL LEATHER SOFA? NOW I'LL HAVE TO BURN IT!"

Leon and Claire had started awake at the sound of Christopher's shouting. They rubbed the sleep from their eyes, looked at each other and smiled. They shared a kiss, wanting to respect their love before dealing with their screaming host.

"It's not that big a deal, man."

Chris frowned at Leon. "Not a big fucking deal? You . . . _spawned _on my three thousand dollar leather sofa!"

Leon got up and pulled on his jeans. "Yeah. Not a big deal. Stop being such a pussy. There's not even that much sweat on your damn couch."

Chris slapped Leon on the back of the head. "It's not the sweat I'm worried about, it's your spunk, Rookie!"

Leon slapped _Chris _in the back of the head. "Stop calling me Rookie, Steroids."

Chris shoved Leon. "You're lucky I don't call you Corpse."

Leon narrowed his eyes and shoved Chris in return.

Claire got up and picked up Leon's discarded polo shirt. She pulled it on and walked calmly between her brother and her boyfriend. "Neutral corners, boys. Let's keep it friendly."

Chris folded his arms over his chest to keep from slugging his bro. "Fine. And stop calling me Steroids."

Leon smirked. "Fine. Muscle Head, then."

"Leon . . . ." Chris warned. "If you don't want two hundred fifty pounds of muscle on _your _head, I advise you to choose the next nickname wisely."

"Okay," Leon said with a chuckle. "Fat Ass, it is." Claire giggled and wrapped Leon's arms around herself from behind.

Chris walked past them to survey the damage to his couch. He used his thumb and index fingertips to pick up the corner of the afghan.

"What did you sex fiends do to Nana Redfield's afghan . . . huh, Rookie?"

Claire turned around in Leon's arms and smiled up at him. "Chris, Leon's right. You shouldn't call him a rookie. I guarantee you, he's an expert." She stood on tiptoes, and kissed him. She then broke their embrace and slapped his ass before grabbing her clothes and heading toward the door of the mancave. "And by the way, she was _my _grandmother, too. And I saw what _you _did with your prom date on _her _couch, so don't get all high and mighty with _me. _You know, that was the first wild monkey porn I ever saw. Now, I'm going to get in a nice warm shower. Leon, when you're done talking to Chris, feel free to join me."

Leon smirked as he watched her ass move under his shirt while she walked toward the door and then exited it. Chris frowned darkly at him. Leon's smirk faded when he saw the scowl on Christopher's face.

Leon sighed. "Look, I don't even get why you're mad. You said I could make love to her in your house."

"NOT IN MY MANCAVE! YOUR SPERM IS PROBABLY EVERYWHERE! I'LL NEED A UV LIGHT AND A C.S.I. JUST TO FIND IT ALL SO I CAN DISINFECT MY STUFF!"

Leon silently reminisced about watching CSI before his second time with Claire, and then again before they fooled around on her sofa after he brought Sherry home. He smiled nostalgically and started to mutter absently, "My sperm isn't anywhere in this room any more. It just left with . . . ."

* * *

He abruptly stopped speaking, lost the stupid grin he'd been sporting, and said "Oh, would you look at the time." He looked at his bare wrist just like how Sherry had done two years prior. Leon then took off out the door.

Chris looked perplexed as to why Leon didn't finish his sentence or why he left so abruptly. He heard Leon run upstairs and the bathroom door slammed. The shower had already been running.

He sighed and decided to turn his attention back to finding out how much mess they'd made. "I'm gonna make that Rookie clean up every drop of jizz I find." He looked at his couch. There was nothing there, just like Leon said. Chris couldn't figure out why there was no love juice . . . until a moment later. Suddenly, he realized where Leon's semen was. Leon had said, it left with . . . .

The sound of a sudden ear piercing scream coming from her brother downstairs was not enough to faze Claire so much that she would unwrap her arms from around the man she loved as they shared a shower.

Leon was wetting his hair under the shower water, washing out the shampoo he'd applied a moment before. Claire's hair was already shampooed. Now she was just waiting for the conditioner to take its effect. She looked up at her boyfriend, studying his face as he shut his eyes and let the water run down his face.

"Leon?"

"Yeah?" he answered as he slicked his hair back and wiped the water out of his eyes.

"There's something I've been meaning to say to you . . . I mean, something I should have asked you ten years ago when you first visited me in Cumberland. Um . . . I _would _have asked you, in fact, if it weren't for that stupid argument later that day." She shook her head, feeling a little defeated about how little time they'd had together over the years. "I've made you wait so long to hear this question, Leon. For that, I'm sorry."

He opened his eyes and looked down at her face. Her expression was so earnest. "What is it, Baby?"

Claire built up her courage as best she could before she answered him. After all, it was a lot to ask at that point in his life. "Leon . . . will you move in with me?"

He smiled sadly. "How would that even be possible?" he asked gently.

She shook her head. "I don't know. I don't care. I just don't want it to be another one or two or six years before I see you again. I want to wake up in your arms everyday that I possibly can." Leon didn't seem to be listening, being so occupied as he was with kissing her breasts in apology for saying 'no'. She giggled. "Honey, will you pay attention. I'm being serious here."

"I'm sorry." He stood up and looked into her eyes.

"Thanks." She sighed. "It's just hard, you know?"

"Damn right, it's hard."

She looked down at his once again rock hard cock and cracked up. "I didn't mean your other brain, Genius. I meant it's hard knowing that our fight against bioterrorism has kept us from being able to share our lives together. I want you to come home with me."

He smiled and pulled her close. "I would, Claire. Really I would, but I don't much relish the idea of being your househusband."

She pouted a little before responding. He was really going to say 'no'. "You can still be an agent," she said hopefully.

He shook his head. "From three hours away, Sweetheart?"

She sighed and closed her eyes. She really didn't want to cry in front of him again. "Yeah," she said once she composed herself. "Yeah, I guess you're right. And you shouldn't have to give up your life for me. Your work is too important, much more important than my silly feelings.

He smiled. "You _are _my life. And your feelings aren't silly. They're important to me. It's not like I don't _want _to live with you, Claire. It's all I've ever wanted. But my work . . . . well, my work is bigger than both of us."

She nodded in agreement. "I understand. You're right. And it was unfair of me to ask. I never meant to put you in an uncomfortable position. I mean, I wouldn't want you to suggest I leave TerraSave behind for you."

He smiled and cupped her face with one hand, stroking the smooth skin of her cheek. "I would never ask you to leave TerraSave. Your work is every bit as important as mine."

She smiled at him, too. She caressed the back of the hand that held her face. "I know you wouldn't ask," she told him. "And I wasn't suggesting that you should quit either. It was just a request founded in my heart and not my head. I just . . . I wish it were possible. I love you." She started to well up despite her best efforts not to. "I hate that we'll never be together the way we should."

He kissed her and wiped away her tears with his thumb. "Never is a strong word, Baby. Have a little faith. We'll figure it out someday."

She continued to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Yeah, we'll figure it out, alright. We'll just keep meeting after years apart, fuck each other's brains out, and then you'll disappear from my life, yet again, until one of us is finally killed in an outbreak and the other is left to mourn forever."

He smirked at her morbid sense of sarcasm. "Hey! Why did you look at _me _when you said one of us was gonna be killed?"

She giggled, but didn't answer his comment. Instead, she hugged him and caressed his back. He closed his eyes and dropped his chin down on top of her head. He had to bend his knees and arch his back to reach her.

She muttered into his chest, "I keep thinking what would have been the course of our lives if Raccoon had never happened, and we never met. It's bittersweet, you know? So many lives lost or destroyed, but if it never happened, I would have never met you. We would have never fallen in love. I guess I should be happy I have you at all."

He smiled. "I think we would have met regardless, Claire. I mean, I would have worked at RPD, and you would have visited Chris. I would have seen you, recognized that you were beautiful and awesome, and then I would have asked for your number."

She chuckled. "You would have been scared to death of Chris and never approached me like everyone else who looked but didn't touch when I visited him. Guys always felt that I wasn't worth the trouble. Why do you think I was a virgin when I met you? I was a biker chick. It certainly wasn't _my _idea. Chris threatened his fellow cops when I visited him, and threatened every man on campus when he visited me. Even the gay men. Even my seventy-year-old professor."

Leon laughed out loud. Chris was out of control back in the day, but Leon still stuck by his convictions. "You obviously don't know me very well, Sweetheart. I'm not afraid of Chris now, and I wouldn't have been then, either."

She smiled. "No, I think I know you better than almost anyone. You're right. You would have taken the Redfield ass whooping for me, and earned Chris's respect."

Leon rubbed his sore chin. It hadn't bruised, but it still hurt like hell where Chris had hit him. 'Tell me about it,' he thought to himself. She looked up at him and smiled wider. He smiled down at her and caressed her cheek. "Claire, you're my soul mate. I would have found you . . . no matter what the course of our lives, we've always found our way back to each other. And if the Umbrella incident had never happened, and we were meant to meet under more normal circumstances, believe me, you would have _definitely _been worth the trouble from Chris."

She kissed him, and then licked his earlobe, which made him shiver, before whispering, "Yeah, you would have pursued me, alright . . . and then you _still _would have popped my cherry."

Leon moaned and leaned down to kiss her. They practically mauled each other's mouths as the water beat down on them. When he lifted her off her feet, pressing her back against the tiled wall, she wrapped her legs around his torso. She waited for the delicious sensation of him joining his body with hers. He didn't disappoint her.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, on the heels of an almost violent simultaneous orgasm, Claire stood on her wobbly legs holding onto Leon for both dear life and for the feel of just holding him in the afterglow.

They reluctantly released each other to finish washing up. After washing one another's backs, Leon turned off the water while Claire got out of the shower and grabbed two fresh towels. As her boyfriend stepped out of the bathtub, she handed him a towel. They dried off together, wrapped the towels around themselves, and shared one more kiss.

Claire left the bathroom smiling blissfully. Leon remained behind to shave, as he hadn't done it earlier in the morning. He couldn't handle the electric shaver before due to his headache.

Once his face was smooth, Leon grabbed his jeans and reached into the pocket. He pulled out his communicator from work and dialed Hunnigan.

"Agent Hunnigan speaking."

"Hey, Ingrid."

"Hello, Agent Kennedy. How's vacation?"

"Oh, come on, Ingrid. I'm off the clock, Gorgeous. You can just call me 'Leon'."

She sighed. "Is there something you wanted, Agent Kennedy?"

Leon chuckled. It always unnerved her when he was overly friendly . . . which was of course the reason _why _he was overly friendly with her. "Could you patch me through to POTUS. I have something important to discuss with him."

Hunnigan complied without question. POTUS would always make time for the Secret Service's top agent . . . especially since Leon had saved the man's daughter.

A man's voice came through the communicator about a minute later. "How can I help you, Leon?"

Leon lowered the lid on the toilet and had a seat. His head was down, his face dejected, as he ran his hand nervously into his fall of hair. He didn't answer for a moment.

"Son, are you there? Is everything okay?"

Finally, he answered. "Not really, sir. I have a problem again . . . with my personal life. And, um . . . I . . . I don't know what to do."

The President sighed. "Claire again?"

Leon nodded, forgetting for a moment that the President couldn't see him. "Yes, sir."

"Tell me what's going on, Son."

Leon shook his head. Sometimes he couldn't believe that the leader of the free world made time to listen to his problems and give him advice. "I'm unhappy, sir. And I don't know how to keep doing my job and still _be _happy. But at the same time, I don't know how to _leave _my job and be happy. I just know I can't keep stringing my girlfriend along like this. I feel guilty. Like it would have been better for her to have fallen in love with someone else just so she could have something akin to a normal life."

The President chuckled. "Leon, Claire Redfield is a search and rescue operative for TerraSave. She hardly leads a normal life, herself. What she does for a living isn't all that different from what you do."

Leon sighed again. "I guess." He was quiet for a moment. The President could be heard typing. "Am I keeping you, sir?"

President Graham chuckled again. "Leon, you always ask me that, and I always say the same thing, don't I? You know that I will always make time for you, my boy. Even once my second term is up. There is no way I could ever repay you for what you did for my family. And the fact that my little girl isn't a traumatized basket case is something she attributes solely to you. You even turned her down when she tried to ask you out." Leon made a small choking sound. The President laughed. "Yes, Leon. Ashley told me about that. She said you were almost . . . big-brotherly in your rejection, where a lesser man would have happily taken advantage of her. I couldn't have asked for a better hero for my daughter. I just wish I knew a way other than being a supportive ear to pay you back for all you've done."

Leon was quiet for a moment. "I couldn't have rescued my _own _daughter without your backing, Sir. As far as I'm concerned, we're square."

President Graham smiled sadly. "No, you rescued your daughter yourself, you and Agent Redfield. My giving you permission to do what you would have tried to do with or without my backing doesn't equate to how you went after my daughter on what had clearly been labeled a suicide mission without argument or remorse. And besides, it was our government's failure to protect her in the first place that led to you needing to go after Sherry at all. I lost days with Ashley because of a rogue agent. You lost years with Sherry because of how _we _failed _you_. And yet, you have never faltered in your duties to this administration. You are simply a good man, Leon. It is an honor to listen to you and try to help you in some small way, even if only with advice."

"Thank you, Sir. I don't know what to say. You're way too kind. And for the record, Sherry's kidnapping was before your administration. That wasn't your fault."

The President chuckled. "Look, don't argue with your Commander-in-chief. I stand by what I said. There is no way I will ever be able to repay you for bringing Ashley home safely."

Leon was quiet again. Finally, when he spoke, his voice was full of hope. "Actually, there might be a way you can make things equal."

"How?"

Leon smiled and told his boss and friend what he needed to finally bring himself and Claire all the happiness that had been denied them for so long.

* * *

_**Arlington, Virginia: the backyard of a large suburban house**_

On Saturday afternoon, all the Umbrella survivors, as well as family and friends, gathered in the spacious backyard of Chris and Jill's new home to bear witness to their union.

Leon stood by Chris's side, and Claire stood beside Jill. Jill wore a form fitting strapless white gown, It was simple but elegant, and Jill was radiant. Leon and Chris both wore dark gray tuxedos. Claire was as stunning as Jill in an ocean-blue strapless bridesmaid dress that ended just above her knees and also hugged her curves. Jill didn't believe in being the only hottie at the altar. She wanted her maid of honor to look good, too. And it worked wonders. The best man couldn't keep his eyes off the maid of honor.

After the rings and vows were exchanged, the minister said, "By the power vested in me by God and the state of Virginia, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride, Christopher."

Chris smiled at the tearful Jillian Catherine Redfield and bent to kiss her, for the first time as her husband.

When they parted he hugged her and whispered something in her ear. She leaned back and stared into his eyes. "A favor? Like what?" He bent to kiss her earlobe, then whispered something again. Jill's gaze drifted over Chris's shoulder to Leon, who was studying his shoes and looking really nervous. Jill smiled and leaned back to nod and smile at her husband. "Do it, Honey. I want to see them happy, too."

Chris beamed at his wife and kissed her soundly again. He then turned to their guests and said, "Thank you all for coming to share today with me and Jilly. We can't even begin to tell you how much it means to us to have all of you here and to see all of you safe." He made it a point to look at Sherry when he said that. Two years before, he wouldn't have thought it possible to get back Jill _and _his surrogate niece. "Now, Jill and I would like to invite you all to share in another important event today."

"The honeymoon night?" Ark asked. Everyone laughed.

"Not on your life, Blabbermouth." Everyone laughed even louder, and Ark gave Chris the finger. "No, really. Jill and I are in agreement that today was just perfect so far, but there is only one more thing that will make this day complete."

Chris turned to Leon and gripped his shoulder briefly in encouragement. Leon took a deep breath and held out his hand to Claire. She looked confused and didn't move for a moment, so Jill shoved her over to Leon. Claire tripped a little, and turned around to glare at her new sister-in-law. Leon gently pulled Claire over to stand in front of him, and Chris pulled Jill to the other side of the altar, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

Leon stared into Claire's eyes for a while, unspeaking. When he finally spoke, he said, "I have something I need to ask you, and I decided that it would be best to ask in front of all of our friends and family."

Claire still looked confused, but this time she was also clearly a little annoyed. "Leon, you're taking away from Chris and Jill's big day."

He shook his head in disagreement and replied, "It was Chris's idea. I was gonna wait to do this tomorrow, but he said I'd probably chicken out without witnesses."

Claire's eyes widened and she looked over her shoulder at her older brother, who winked and made a gesture with his head to indicate she should look at Leon. Then the entire gathered assemblage of their family and friends let out a collective gasp followed by a chorus of shushes. She looked out at the crowd and saw that both Leon's mother and Mrs. Steinbaugh had tears in their eyes.

Now she was _really _confused. She turned to look up at Leon, but he was gone. But he still had a hold of her left hand. She looked down and found him on one knee holding up a small black velvet box. Once he had her attention again, he opened the box to reveal a huge diamond ring. "Claire . . . will you marry me?"

Claire's eyes welled up just like her boyfriend's mother and her neighbor. Her daughter stood up and screamed, "Booyah! It's a fucking rock!" Sherry then turned to Kenny, her date and boyfriend of two years and told him to take notes. He sighed and pulled her back down to her seat.

"Point taken, Sher. Now, clam up."

Claire was frozen as she stared into Leon's eyes. He looked terrified. She had never seen him afraid of anything. She was completely tongue-tied. She couldn't even remember how to make her mouth work to answer him.

The fear in his eyes seemed to double with every second that passed with no answer. "Just say yes, Claire, and I promise you that I will never let you feel alone again." She still didn't answer. "Baby, I once told you that I'd vowed that I'd see to it that these viruses were wiped from the face of the Earth. But I refuse to let that vow be at the expense of your happiness anymore." No answer. His face fell with disappointment. He kissed her hand and closed his eyes. "I'll do anything. I'll live with you, and keep the condo in Georgetown for when I can't get back home on long work days. I'll fly to work everyday in my new huey. I asked President Graham if I could buy a used helicopter from the army. It would be up to him as Commander-in-chief of the military, and I'd just pay over time, but he just gave it to me instead. I'm a certified pilot, and I can keep my helicopter at the Cumberland Airport. It will cut the commute down to less than an hour. And I'll keep my old Italian roadster at the airstrip as my ride in the city when I'm at work."

"Or one of us will pick you up everyday," Bruce offered.

Leon looked out at his friend and saw that he, Carlos, Billy, Ark, and even Barry were all nodding in agreement. He had told them at the bachelor party how he and Claire had been together from the beginning. Carlos had then turned to Billy and said, "Pay up."

Leon nodded his thanks to his friends, and turned back to face Claire. "There, see? We can do this. The Aston Martin and the jeep can stay at home with you." Tears spilled over Claire's eyes, but she still didn't speak. Leon felt like his world was ending. She was going to say 'no'. He could tell. "Alright, you want me to beg? I'll do it. Please, Claire. We can make this work. I know we can, Baby. If you'll let me, I'll make you happier than you could even imagine. Just . . . please, even if you want to take time to just think about it, please . . . just don't say 'no' right now."

That broke her out of her trance. He sounded so lost. She shook her head a little to clear it and took a deep breath and exhaled. She pulled Leon to stand in front of her. She smiled.

"Yes, Leon," she finally forced out of her traitorous, nonfunctional mouth. "The answer is 'yes'. I'll marry you. I only hope I can make you as happy as you've made me."

Leon's face split in a slow, elated grin. He put the ring on her left ring finger and bent to plant kisses across her face. "Jesus Christ, Baby! I almost had a heart attack!"

Their friends all laughed and went up into cheers.

Sherry pumped her fist and barked like she was in Arsenio Hall's 'dog pound' then yelled, "I want a baby sibling to corrupt!"

Ark, being just as inappropriate as his best friend's daughter, yelled, "It's about time you asked her to marry you, you fuckin' loser!"

Everyone laughed at the two loudest, most inappropriate members of their anti-Umbrella family. Ark's own adopted son Lott was quiet, but looked relieved. His girlfriend of a year, Ashley Graham, just giggled and kissed his cheek. "I told you not to be jealous," she announced loudly. "Leon's too old for me. And besides, he always said he was in love with someone. Although, I never thought it would turn out to be Claire. I was certain that Ada was the one he was talking about."

Claire overheard the comment and frowned in disbelief at Ashley. The First Daughter noticed Claire shooting eye daggers at her, blushed in embarrassment, and mouthed, 'sorry'.

Claire nodded tersely then kissed her fiancé again. Chris patted Leon on the back and Claire turned to embrace Jill. Jill grabbed her hand and studied the ring.

"Sherry's right," the bride said. "Leon bought you a rock."

Chris gave Leon a manly bro-hug and said loud enough for everyone within six feet to hear, "You better make sexual experience number ten good for Claire."

Leon chuckled, unfazed by Chris's attempt to make him embarrassed. "Oh, I already did number ten . . . on your leather couch. Then number eleven was in the shower. Although numbers twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen were even better. Dude, we totally christened almost every room in your house. We even did it in your basement when we collapsed and tied up all those boxes you never recycled because you bitched about your stupid sofa. The only room we didn't get to is your bedroom." Chris's eyebrows shot up. "Which reminds me," Leon continued. "Do you guys need a house-sitter while you're on your honeymoon? I'd kinda like to finish the job."

For the second time, Leon caused half the gathered assemblage to gasp.

Chris pulled away from his future brother-in-law and stared at Leon's smirking face. He didn't move for almost a minute, and then he punched him right in the stomach.

Leon dropped to the ground and, finally, Chris laughed. "Sorry. Reflex."

A moment later, Billy yelled from his seat, "Yeah! Take _that_, Mr. Mullet Warfare!"

Everyone looked at him funny except Ark, Lott, Carlos, Bruce, Barry, Chris, Kenny, Leon's father, his Uncle Sean, and even the stomach clutching Leon on the ground, who all start laughing. Apparently, mullet warfare was a topic of conversation at the bachelor party.

Claire, Jill, Rebecca, Fong, and Mercedes all sighed and rolled their eyes.

Chris broke out into a cockney accent and taunted Leon. "You're arse over kettle now, ya tosser!" he laughed.

Leon laughed even harder, despite how much it hurt, and replied in a similar accent. "Knock it off, ya naffin' knobber! You'll make me piss me Alan Whickers!"

The men all went up in another roar of laughter. The cockneyed adventures of Fucking, Austria had been the real highlight of the bachelor party conversation.

Claire gave Leon a brief show of support. She too spoke in a cockney accent when she said, "If you're about to get in a right chord over me and Leon havin' a knee-trembler in the loo, we'll just start usin' that road marker you nicked as a 'Do Not Disturb' sign."

Ark yelled, "Oh, snap!" The other men laughed even harder. They knew all about the sign and what it said. A more appropriate and to the point 'Do Not Disturb' sign had never existed.

Jill rolled her eyes. Why did she feel like she'd just signed on for a lifetime as a zookeeper without the possibility of retirement? She grabbed Chris by the arm and turned him to face her, and then smacked him on the back of his head. "See what you started? You said you wanted a favor, not a fisaco! My wedding is a profane circus, now!"

"Me? Leon started it!"

Jill smirked and kissed him. "Not another word, or you'll be joining your best man on the ground."

Chris looked down at his bro, who was still laughing and holding his gut. Chris chuckled then rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head. Jill got him good. "Married life is gonna be awesome!" he laughed. He then walked Jill down the aisle, the newlyweds stepping over Leon in the process. Claire helped Leon up off the ground and they followed Mr. & Mrs. Redfield.

The poor minister looked traumatized.

Leon's mother glared at Chris playfully but smiled and winked at him afterward. Leon's sister Emily was in tears from laughing so hard. Leon's father commented after Chris and Jill passed by, "I feel your pain, Chris. They had sex in my house, too." Claire and Leon both groaned. They did _not _want Chris to know that.

Chris looked back at Leon in surprise, "_What?_"

Leon shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. Claire had already made me promise not to ever tell you about that one when you asked about all the other times we had sex."

"Chris!" Rebecca gasped. "You asked him that?" She turned and frowned at Leon. "And you actually _told _her brother?"

Leon immediately passed the buck. "He backed me into a corner! He used an old promise to make me feel obligated to talk!"

"Traitor!" Chris shouted.

"Chris!" Rebecca scolded.

"Dammit! A wife _and _an extra surrogate little sister! I'm gonna die of estrogen poisoning!"

"You survived growing up with me," Claire said.

"You don't make estrogen, Tomboy."

Claire frowned and stomped on Chris's foot with her stiletto heel.

"Bollocks!" he yelled in a cockney accent before grabbing his sore foot.

* * *

The reception continued in the yard, The guests all just mingled around the yard eating hors d'oeuvres and drinking champagne while listening to the DJ. Jill's father had been released from prison for the day so he could walk Jill down the aisle. He also gave her a father-daughter dance, which was followed by a dance between the Redfield siblings.

After that, Claire went to talk to Leon's parents. They had only just told them about their relationship a few days before by phone. It must have been a lot to take in now that they were engaged so soon after his family found out about them . . . or at least that was what she thought until she remembered that Colonel Kennedy said he knew they'd made love in Leon's old room. She blushed as she walked up beside Leon and his father. "Hi."

The Kennedys all smiled at her. She looked around at the four blond, tall people before her. She was dwarfed by them. She sighed. She hated being so short.

"You knew about that, Poppa Kennedy? I mean, what we did in your house?"

He shrugged and smirked at her. "It's not like you two were quiet."

Claire frowned at Leon. "You said we were quiet!" She then punched him in the gut. He dropped to the ground again. Mrs. Steinbaugh started laughing along with Leon's uncle Sean, who were dancing together a few feet away.

Claire sighed. "Sorry. Reflex," she told his family. His parents just shrugged, smiling in amusement. Emily was laughing her head off. Claire pulled Leon up off the ground and then led him toward the house to find some ibuprofen.

"Don't worry about it, Claire," Mrs. Kennedy said.

Emily chuckled. "Yeah, it's a relief to know that Leon's future wife can kick his ass."

Leon and Claire smirked as they walked across the lawn.

"This entire family is a loony bin," she commented when they were out of earshot of his folks. "Are my kids gonna be this . . . special?" she asked him.

He chuckled, then winced in pain. "Seems like a pretty safe bet they will. It's like you once said . . . they're gonna be related to me _and _Chris by blood. That poor kid is doomed. Plus Sherry the Sailorman with the filthy mouth over there is gonna be the big sister role model so . . . good luck with _that_."

Claire looked up at Leon who was still looking thoroughly amused despite being assaulted by two Redfields in under an hour. She looked back at her brother, who had Kenny in a headlock and was demanding to know how many times the young man ever had sex with Sherry.

Sherry, on the other hand, was telling anyone who'd listen which four-letter words she was gonna teach the inevitable Kennedy baby in the hopes that one of them would be its first word.

Claire sighed. "Great. Just great." She took Leon's hand and led him inside the back door of the house. "Come on, _Special _Agent Kennedy. Let's get you patched up."

~THE END~

* * *

**Author's Final Thoughts:** I just wanted to thank everyone who ever read or reviewed my story. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, but even if you didn't, thanks for stopping by to read! Stay tuned for the sequel coming soon!

~ Tani


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